CARIBBEAN: Regional Economy Plan Mired in Crisis

Even as Caribbean countries hope to present a more united front to confront the region's growing economic woes, the current global recession has made this complex transition much harder, experts warn ahead of a special summit here at month-end.

MIDEAST: Cornering of Civilians Unprecedented, Says UN Official

Israel's refusal to allow civilians any exit route from Gaza as its defence forces rained bombs down on schools and houses appears unprecedented in modern warfare, a United Nations investigator has said.

CHINA: Modernising the World's Biggest Army

The army parade to mark the 60th anniversary of modern China’s founding this fall - a rare chance for China to flaunt its military muscle - will showcase not only the country’s newest weaponry but the modernisation of its military too.

MIDEAST: Alarm Spreads Over Use of Lethal New Weapons

Eighteen-year-old Mona Al-Ashkar says she did not immediately know the first explosion at the United Nations (UN) school in Beit Lahiya had blown her left leg off. There was smoke, then chaos, then the pain and disbelief set in once she realised it was gone - completely severed by the weapon that hit her.

POLITICS-MALAYSIA: By-Poll Debacle May Hit Reforms

A key parliamentary by-election on Saturday that fell to a resurgent opposition alliance has piled pressure on Malaysia's prime minister-to-be, Najib Razak.

MIDEAST: Move On From Conventional Wisdom

In his inauguration address Tuesday, U.S. President Barack Obama made no direct reference to Israel's three-week campaign in Gaza; nor did he mention the urgency of addressing the old bugbear of international relations - how successfully to forge a Palestinian-Israel peace.

AFRICA: European Parliament Softens Position on EPA Trade Deals

The European Union’s only directly elected body is demanding that a new trade deal between the bloc and Cameroon should not be applied to other countries in central Africa.

MIDEAST: Too Many Pieces to Pick Up

A pillow, a belt, a child's school bag and pages of a torn copy of the Quran lie in the wreckage of the Al-Da'aa family home in Zeitoun, a neighbourhood of Gaza City. Twenty-four members of the family were killed when an F-16 fighter jet dropped a bomb on their house. Nine bodies still lie under what is now just a massive pancake of concrete, metal wires and death.

PAKISTAN: Obama Inauguration Brings Hope, Scepticism

As billions of people around the world tuned in to participate electronically in Barack Hussein Obama’s inauguration as the 44th President of the United States, the message of hope that he symbolised resonated with Pakistanis - though some shrugged it off as part of a system that is unlikely to change.

INDIA: ‘No Reason For Unease at Obama Presidency’

As much of the world jubilates in the swearing in of Barack Hussein Obama as the President of the United States of America, Indian diplomats are uneasy about what his presidency would entail for relations between the two countries.

SOMALIA: Poverty Forces Children Into the Streets

Hassan Maye, 13, has been fending for himself and his family in the streets of Mogadishu since he was ten. He shines shoes in the Sinai neighbourhood in the southern part of the Somali capital. On a good day, he says he earns 18,000 shillings - equivalent to roughly 50 cents.

ZIMBABWE: Now a 'Factory for Poverty'

Over 75 percent of the people in crisis-riddled Zimbabwe are living in desperate poverty, with children bearing the brunt. And with rival parties still deadlocked over implementation of a power-sharing agreement signed four months ago, things are likely to get worse before they improve.

INDIA/PAKISTAN: Civil Society Mounts Peace Offensive

A visit to India by a delegation of civil society activists from Pakistan as part of a ‘peace offensive’ is expected to help keep the two South Asian neighbours from going to war over the Nov. 26-29 terror attacks on Mumbai city.

CHINA/US: Obama Era May See More Trade Friction

China is entering the Obama era on a defensive note. Angered by U.S. charges that its glut of savings was the root cause for the global credit bubble, Beijing has chided Washington for being ungrateful and hinted at reviewing its long-standing policy of buying U.S. debt.

RIGHTS-INDIA: Gujarat’s Modi as Premier?

Two of India’s wealthiest and most influential businessmen have raised a political storm by jarring public endorsements of controversial leader Narendra Modi as the world’s largest democracy’s next prime minister.

EUROPE: Watching That Space, and Seeing More of the Same

Polished, clever and charismatic, Barack Obama appears the very antithesis of the bungling cowboy that his predecessor in the White House, George W. Bush was widely believed to be. That in itself helps explain why his election as the first black president of the U.S. in November delighted millions in Europe.

RIGHTS-US: After the Party, Obama Has One Long To-Do List

As an estimated two million celebrants converge on the U.S. capital for the inauguration festivities of President-elect Barack Obama Tuesday, the mood among human rights groups and some religious leaders is somewhat more sombre.

MIDEAST: Say it Plain, Mr. President

Europe now evidently understands what the U.S. has long understood - if you want to move Israelis on peace, you need to make them feel secure.

MIDEAST: A ‘Police State’ Celebrates

The Israeli government is stepping up efforts to suppress dissent and crush resistance in the streets. Police have been videotaping the demonstrations and subsequently arresting protesters in large numbers.

Ecobreves – BRAZIL: Energy Plan Contradicts Climate Plan

Two weeks after taking on the goals of its National Climate Change Plan, Brazil announced its 10-year Energy Expansion Plan, which calls for building more than 80 fossil-fuel-based thermoelectric plants and 71 hydroelectric plants (many in the Amazon) by 2017.

Ecobreves – MEXICO: Imports of Used Cars Could Be Toxic

With the doors opened Jan. 1 in Mexico to imports of cars 10 years and older from the United States, air pollution rates could see a dramatic increase, warn observers.