Argentina’s Imports Climb Despite State Controls

To maintain its trade surplus, Argentina continues to control imports – a strategy that has bolstered its national industry but is questioned by importers, partners in the Mercosur trade bloc, and rich countries.

Seeds of Conflict Sprout in the Balkans

This year, summer in the Balkans has been nice and warm, leaving behind a land of plenty, and enough food on the table. Except that people are talking about tomatoes “that don’t taste as they used to,” watermelons that are too watery, cabbages that are hard to slice through and onions that do not sting your eyes.

Forest Communities Draw a REDD Line

As the ink dries on a 3.6 million dollar agreement between Uganda and the World Bank to support the country’s preparations for REDD, some analysts are pessimistic over the mechanism’s potential.

Groups Force Release of NSA Spying Documents

After more than two years of fighting to prevent their release, the Department of Justice has released numerous documents related to domestic spying on U.S. citizens by the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) and the previously-secret court opinions that authorised the NSA’s controversial programmes to go forward.

Schools in Mexico: Funding but not for Phys Ed or Desks

On his first day of fourth grade, Efraín found there were no desks or benches in the classroom in his Mexico City school. His parents had to help the teacher haul in furniture from other rooms so the children wouldn’t have to start the new school year sitting on the floor.

Tourism Rescuing Tunisia

The Tunisian revolution, which ousted the dictator Ben Ali in early 2011, gave greater liberty to Tunisians but it also scared off many tourists. However, despite the current political crisis visitors have steadily returned, and the Tunisian authorities and tourism industry are determined to protect a sector which plays a vital role in the Tunisian economy.

Afghans Caught Between Terror and Corruption

The threat to the stability of the Hamid Karzai government in Afghanistan arises not so much from outside as from within. And the one thing that is eating into its edifice is the malaise called corruption.

Egyptian Workers Rising Again After the Uprising

It was the Egyptian state’s brutal restrictions on worker freedoms that transformed Kareem El-Beheiry from a disengaged lay worker into a tenacious labour activist.

Mugabe’s Policies Starve Zimbabweans

Tambudzai Javangwe from Mwenezi district in southern Zimbabwe, has run out of food and each day she begs for hand-outs from well-wishers so that she can feed herself an her six orphaned grandchildren.

U.N. Group Pushes for Water Debate to Include Disasters

Floods, droughts and climate change should be considered alongside access to clean water by the United Nations General Assembly when it convenes in mid-September, according to a meeting of The Friends of Water on Monday.

Cuba Streamlines Public Health System

One challenge faced by the Cuban government, and a high priority for citizens, is improving the efficiency and sustainability of public health services, a constitutional right that the state is supposed to ensure for all.

Group of “Eminent Persons” on CTBT

A group of 20 “eminent persons” is being assigned the task of convincing eight countries to join the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT).

Somalia’s Fractures Getting Hard to Heal

The system of government remains the biggest political obstacle in Somalia as key political players boycotted the government’s current national conference to discuss this country’s political future, according to Jaylani Mukhtar, a local academic based in capital Mogadishu.

Cameroonians ‘Dying’ for Fake Drugs

When Francois Biloa fell ill with malaria, his family did what they had always done in the past – they gave him anti-malaria drugs and antibiotics bought from the local market. Only when his condition worsened and he became bedridden and fell unconscious, did his family take him to a local clinic in Cameroon’s capital Yaoundé.

Military Given Full Powers to Fight Crime in Honduras

Human rights defenders and members of the opposition in Honduras see a new elite military unit created to engage in policing as a drastic setback for the demilitarisation efforts that began two decades ago. The Military Police of Public Order will be launched in October, initially with 900 officers, to be built up to 5,000 by early 2014.

Brazilian Hydroelectricity Giant Promotes Biogas

The massive Itaipú hydroelectric dam, shared by Brazil and Paraguay, has now become a model for the micro-scale production of an energy source that is not only clean, but also helps to reduce pollution and promote local development: biogas.

Spanish Baby Theft Case Crosses the Atlantic

The mystery still surrounding the massive business of stealing and buying babies, practised for decades in Spain by the regime of Francisco Franco (1939-1975), could start to be clarified in courtrooms in Argentina.

Survivors of Peru’s Armed Conflict Still Waiting

Venisia Ávalos, a 65-year-old indigenous woman from Peru’s highlands region of Ayacucho, looks for her son’s name among a labyrinth formed by thousands of small grey stones.

Cuba’s Stray Dogs Have Their Champions

The stray cat’s fur was burned and its eyes were hanging from its sockets when pensioner Neida González found it on a street in the Cuban capital. The cat, which she named Grenlito, now lives with her eight other pets.

Native Americans Take Lead in Tar Sands Resistance

Native American tribes in the United States have taken the lead in opposing the expansion of the Athabasca Tar Sands in Alberta, Canada, engaging in civil disobedience to the point of arrest and attempting to physically block shipments of construction equipment from passing through their native lands.

Filming Uganda’s Own Stories

For four years Isaac Godfrey Nabwana made and sold bricks in Kampala’s Wakalinga slum. But now, thanks to his labours, he is building what he hopes will become Uganda’s answer to Nollywood.