ECONOMY: Crisis Talks to Confront Dueling Demands

Leaders of the world's 20 biggest economies will confront dueling demands for action when they gather here Saturday in the highest-level acknowledgement so far that the global economy is in crisis.

DEVELOPMENT: A Global Health Model, Village by Village

Working for sustainable development in Kenya, which ranks 148th out of 177 countries on the United Nations development index, is a daunting task. The country not only has a 6.1 percent rate of HIV/AIDS infection among its 37 million people, but nearly 60 percent of Kenyans live on less than two dollars a day.

GUYANA: U.S. “Mercy Mission” Viewed With Scepticism

Earlier this week, a U.S. assault ship on the final leg of a mission to five Latin American and Caribbean countries anchored off Guyana's northeastern coast in what the Pentagon says is a humanitarian mission.

HEALTH: Europe Ignoring TB Research

Funding from the European Union's Brussels headquarters for research into tuberculosis stands at about a fifth of what it should be given the EU's enormous wealth, a new study has found.

FINANCE: Corporate Vows Tested in the West Bank

A company that is a member of the U.N. Global Compact for corporate social responsibility has ties to production in an Israeli settlement on the West Bank considered illegal by the United Nations.

POLITICS-MOZAMBIQUE: Fate and Merit

Two deaths in a row placed Rita Muianga at the helm of Xai-Xai's municipal council. In 2003, council presidents Ernesto Mausse and Faquir Bay died suddenly and successively. Rumours of witchcraft gripped Xai-Xai, a small town 220 kilometres north of Mozambique's capital, Maputo.

RIGHTS: Women Leaders Reject "State of Living Death"

United in their fight against discrimination and inequality, three women from crisis-struck countries received the 2008 Gruber International Women's Rights Prize - Yanar Mohammed from Iraq, Sapana Pradhan Malla from Nepal, and Nadera Shalhoub-Kervorkian, a Palestinian woman living in the state of Israel.

Q&A: When Europe Was Occupied, And It Resisted

The assault on Chris Davies, Liberal Democrat party spokesman for the environment for the north west of Britain and a member of the European Union's parliamentary delegation to the Palestinian Legislative Council, has delivered a firm political message to the European parliament.

DEVELOPMENT-NAMIBIA: Land Reform Reaping Fruits Despite Problems

Almost two decades after independence Namibia’s land reform shows positive results and is guided by fair laws, but bureaucracy, slow progress in transformation of land ownership and unclear criteria for expropriation are overshadowing successes.

RIGHTS-MALAYSIA: Gov’t Edgy Over Candlelight Protests

Heavy handed police action against a gathering of Malaysians, near the capital of Kuala Lumpur, protesting against a draconian preventive detention law, suggests government nervousness at persistent public vigils.

POLITICS-MOZAMBIQUE: The Modern Face of Renamo

If Maria Moreno is elected president of the Municipal Council in Cuamba, in Niassa Province, Mozambique's parliament will lose one of its most interesting personalities.

POLITICS-US: Pundits Debate the Inevitability of a Nuclear Iran

It wasn't U.S. relations with an Arab country on the tips of many tongues at this year's National Council on U.S.-Arab Relations meeting in the last week of October. Rather, much of the focus was on the Arab Middle East's ethnic Persian neighbour to the east: Iran.

ECONOMY: China May Decide That Charity Begins at Home

Internal concerns are beginning to supersede China’s ambition to play the role of responsible international stakeholder and spearhead demands for the establishment of a new global financial order.

ECONOMY-SRI LANKA: ‘War Budget’ Ignores Int’l Criticism

President Mahinda Rajapakse’s annual budget, that increases spending on the armed forces, has drawn mixed reactions. While supporters have welcomed it as a budget that breaks away from dependency on foreign loans and grants, opponents say it will exacerbate economic woes.

DEVELOPMENT-CAMBODIA: Women Take to Fishing As Catches Decline

Cambodia’s fishing industry may still be viewed as a male bastion, but as household fish catches decline, putting pressure on food security, women are rising to the challenge and becoming involved in growing numbers.

TRINIDAD: PM’s Visit to Radio Station Irks Journalists

When he "dropped in" on the Power 102 radio station last weekend to complain about the "unprofessional conduct" of two local broadcasters, Prime Minister Patrick Manning insisted that he was exercising his right as an ordinary citizen.

DOMINICAN REPUBLIC: Prejudice Against Haitians Boils Over – Again

"A group of Dominicans armed with pistols, machetes and knives came to take revenge on us. I broke my leg trying to escape from my house, which was on fire. It's not fair that all Haitians should have to pay for the crime of one," Elena Piti, a Haitian mother of seven who lives in the Dominican Republic, told IPS.

MEXICO: Cyclists Speed Up Transportation Changes

Cyclists in the Mexican capital who pedal nude once a year and organise tours through the city have overcome the suspicions of city officials and are now participating in designing plans to benefit this environmentally-friendly mode of transportation.

Ecobreves – VENEZUELA: Students' Eco-Ideas Win Prizes

María José Zavala, 20, and Enrique Pacheco, 23, traveled this month to Germany as part of the prize they won in a university contest for environmental ideas, sponsored in Venezuela by the environmental group Vitalis.

Ecobreves – BRAZIL: New Book Highlights Threatened Animals

The Red Book of Endangered Brazilian Fauna provides detailed data about 627 animal species that could soon disappear from the planet -- three times the number of the previous list, from 1989.

Ecobreves – CHILE: Critics Point to Lack of Anti-Desertification Measures

"Desertification is one of Chile's most serious environmental problems, but there is no government policy" to fight it, Lucio Cuenca, of the Latin American Observatory of Environmental Conflicts (OLCA), told Tierramérica.