FINANCE: Major Banks Grease Wheels for Corrupt Regimes

Some of the world's leading banks facilitate corruption in the poorest countries, charges a new report by Global Witness, an independent watchdog group.

DEVELOPMENT: World’s Poor Offer Lessons in Bank Study

To be successful, poverty-reducing programmes must be informed by the lives and experiences of the millions of poor people around the world and emphasise economic opportunity, says a study released Wednesday by the World Bank.

U.S.: Islamist Govts Not the Enemy, Say Mideast Experts

Scores of Middle East and democracy experts released an open letter to U.S. President Barack Obama Tuesday asking him to focus more of his foreign policy efforts at making reforms in the region, including boosting human rights.

POLITICS-CHINA: Row Over Tibet Escalates

China has sealed off Tibet with troops and demanded that the international community recognise the legitimacy of Beijing's historical claims over the Himalayan plateau, escalating a row over its policies there.

LIBERIA: Even the Devil is Subject to the Law

Tiny 14-year-old Precious sits on her orphanage bed in the southern port town of Harper, accused of witchcraft six months ago and exiled from her family and nearby community.

MIDEAST: Hot Air Brings no Winds of Change

Last November, on the day marking the assassination of Israel's peace-making leader Yitzhak Rabin, the now outgoing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told Israelis something which, for decades, not even Rabin had dared say - we must end the occupation of the Palestinian territories and return to the 1967 borders.

RIGHTS-VIETNAM: Gender Equality Far Off Despite Political Will

"We’ve been busier than usual today,'' said Huong, giving only one name, as she scrubbed a customer’s scalp in her tiny salon, the front room of her home. "We’re doing the same treatments, only a lot more. Everyone wants to look beautiful today."

RIGHTS-US: Profiling Still Plagues Muslim Communities

On the heels of a recent poll that found that American Muslims experience emotional turbulence due to the stereotypes and suspicion of Islam since the Sep. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, two major Muslim-American organisations issued scathing indictments of the tactics of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Department of Homeland Security.

HEALTH-NIGERIA: Govt Struggling to Guarantee Safety of Medicines

In 2008, as many as a thousand children were hospitalised with diarrhoea and vomiting after taking "My Pikin" teething syrup. At least 84 children are known to have died.

AFGHANISTAN: Women Lawmakers Battle Warlords

Whenever lawmaker Fatima Nazari rose to speak, she says the parliament’s chair snubbed her. Whenever one of her female colleagues made a suggestion, it was brushed aside. Sometimes certain notorious warlords would speak multiple times before a female member of parliament (MP) could speak once.

MEDIA-EAST TIMOR: Minister, Editor Wrangle On Over Expose

East Timor's justice minister says she will file a civil liability case against newspaper editor Jose Belo, if criminal defamation charges do not make it in court.

Ecobreves – CHILE: Energy-Saving Light Bulbs for Low-Income Households

The Chilean government will distribute 1.4 million energy-saving light bulbs to some 250,000 families this year in an effort to bring down electric power consumption.

Ecobreves – HONDURAS: Risk Management Act to Be Debated

The Honduran Congress is set to discuss a risk management bill that will replace the current three-decade-old regulations on the subject.

Ecobreves – VENEZUELA: The 10 Commandments of Energy Efficiency

The environmental organization Vitalis called on Venezuelans to adopt an “Energy Efficiency Decalogue” to help mitigate global warming.

Ecobreves – BRAZIL: Environmental Services to Prevent Amazon Logging

Investing in environmental services would stave off deforestation in 13 million hectares of Brazil’s Amazonia at least until 2016, according to a book presented by the Ministry of Environmental Affairs, which sets criteria for calculating compensations.

Ecobreves – CUBA: Transgenic Crop Production Begins

Cuba has started planting transgenic corn as part of a field trial to obtain seeds to be used in food production.

MIDEAST: Where Every Day Is a Woman's Day

We've been warned she's a "harsh case". Hesitantly she enters, a withdrawn smile hidden behind glasses and a canopy of thick black hair. Impassively, she tells her life story - as if it's about someone else entirely: She's 19. Since seven, she's been sexually assaulted by "an influential family relative."

RIGHTS-PAKISTAN: Women Defy Militancy, Patriarchy

The challenges and contradictions facing Pakistani women were never so apparent as now. While striding ahead in a country that gave the world its first female, Muslim prime minister, they also face the threat of terrorism which claimed her as a victim.

SOUTH AFRICA: ‘My Body, My Business’: Sex Workers Seek Protection from the Law

The steps of the Cape Town High Court, a frequent site of protest, have seen it all, but Mar. 6, was the first time, sex workers openly stood up for their rights there.

POLITICS-SUDAN: Aid Agencies Accused, Expelled

The Sudanese government has expelled 10 aid agencies, accusing them of supplying exaggerated evidence against President Omar al-Bashir to the International Criminal Court (ICC) which has issued a warrant for his arrest.

US-COLOMBIA: "Drug Lords" Getting Free Pass on Worse Crimes?

Yet another of Colombia’s top paramilitary leaders was extradited to the U.S. Thursday to be brought up on drug trafficking charges despite the objections of some rights groups and questions raised by Colombian politicians visiting Washington.