INDIA: Mulling Tough Options Against Pakistan

United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrives in the Indian capital Wednesday to try and soothe nerves frayed by last week's terrorist attacks in Mumbai, but is likely to face an uphill task in defusing mounting suspicion and tension between India and Pakistan.

POLITICS: Muslim-Majority Nations Back More Independent U.N.

People in seven majority Muslim countries favour a more active United Nations with broader powers, while simultaneously viewing the world body as dominated by the U.S. and failing to deal with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, according to a new poll by WorldPublicOpinion.org, a global network of research centres.

ENVIRONMENT: Health – a Victim of Climate Change

More malaria, diarrhea, and asthma: these diseases are on the rise around the world because of environmental destruction and kill some three million children under five and two million adults a year.

DEVELOPMENT: ‘No Bailout Plan for the Vulnerable’

"Good but not enough!" "Missed opportunity!" "Talks fail to deliver!" These were some of the reactions from civil society as the U.N. Financing for Development (FfD) talks drew to a close in Doha, Qatar, on Tuesday.

EAST AFRICA: Branded Coffee Yet To Boost Farmers’ Incomes

The Windsor Golf and Country Club is a swanky five-star hotel, widely believed to possess the best 18-hole golf course in the East and Central Africa region. Its origin, dating back to 1992, marked the death knell of a golden era when coffee as a cash crop stood out as the top foreign exchange earner in Kenya.

Q&A: ‘The Abolitionist Cause Should Be Separate from Politics’

The abolitionist movement in Syria faces more difficulties from religious institutions and scholars than from the state, says Ammar Qurabi.

Q&A: ‘Divinely Ordained Law Makes Abolition More Difficult’

Political Islam is the main barrier to abolishing the death penalty in most countries where it is still practised, says Maryam Namazie.

Q&A: 'Religious Institutions and Islamists Oppose Abolition'

King Mohamed VI of Morocco could easily abolish the death penalty by royal decree. But by keeping capital punishment on the statute books, the young King is yielding to official religious institutions and Islamists, says Brahim Ahensal.

Q&A: ‘Review of All Life Sentences after a Set Time’

The guns of state firing squads are today silent in Central Asia.

CANADA: Native Rights Concerns Cloud 2010 Games

A coalition of indigenous elders, social justice activists and community organisers is voicing opposition to the upcoming Winter Olympics, promising to continue their protests up to and throughout the 2010 games.

HEALTH-AFRICA: Breaking the Cycle of HIV Transmission

According to the United Nations Children's Fund, early diagnosis and treatment greatly increase survival rates for HIV-positive newborns. but fewer than one in ten infants born to HIV-positive mothers in 2007 was tested for HIV within two months of birth.

DEVELOPMENT: Rights In Times of Crisis

For the past three decades, indebted developing countries have been forced by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank to deregulate financial and labour markets, privatise national industries, abolish subsidies, and reduce social and economic spending.

DEVELOPMENT: An Opportunity to Create a New Financial Architecture

The most severe financial crisis since the Great Depression needs massive economic stimulus packages that are coherent and linked with sustainable development imperatives, asserts a new report by top U.N. economists released Monday on the sidelines of the Monterrey Review conference in Doha.

DEVELOPMENT: 'G192' Urged to Put People in Doha Talks

The demand is seemingly simple. ‘Vote for democratic, people-centred development’, advise civil society at the ongoing inter-governmental review of the Monterrey Consensus in Doha, Qatar.

Ecobreves – BRAZIL: Irrigation Project Wins International Prize

The Pintadas Solar project, which foments farming on small family-owned plots, has won the Seed Award, granted by the United Nations and the World Conservation Union (IUCN).

Ecobreves – HONDURAS: Mining Companies Putting On the Pressure — Again

The mining industry in Honduras has once again demanded that the government approve a legal framework for the sector, citing financial losses and reduction of jobs resulting from a lack of investment.

Ecobreves – ARGENTINA: Jaguars Victims of Ranchers

One of the main causes of the decline of the jaguar population in Argentina is hunting -- reprisal for the big cats' attacks on livestock --, according to the report "Identification of Jaguar-Human Conflicts in Northern Salta, Argentina," published this month by the Red Yaguareté (Jaguar Network).

Ecobreves – MEXICO: Christmas Trees and Plagues from the North

With Christmas trees imported from Canada and Mexico, pests are arriving in Mexico, but the authorities are doing little or nothing about it, complain Mexican forestry producers.

Q&A: "How Are We Going to Sustain Gender Approaches?"

The negative aspects of Africa's experience with structural adjustment programmes beginning in the 1990s have been well-documented - facing high debt loads, African governments agreed to liberalise their economies, privatise public enterprises, and sharply reduce social spending with often painful effects on the most vulnerable.

ECONOMY-US: Past Crises Could Inform or Haunt Team Obama

Faced with the worst crisis since the Great Depression, President-elect Barack Obama ditched tradition this week, naming his economic team before anointing a secretary of state - by custom the first and senior-most cabinet appointment.

TRADE: Cote d’Ivoire Succumbs to EU

Cote d'Ivoire became the first country in Africa to sign an economic partnership agreement (EPA) with the European Union this week, prompting fears that the accord will prevent the country from developing closer ties with its neighbours.