PAKISTAN: Quake Survivors Await Relief

Poor infrastructure and communications are making it difficult for rescue and relief teams to reach scattered hamlets in the mountainous plateau area affected by the 6.4 magnitude earthquake that struck Pakistan’s Balochistan province at dawn on Wednesday.

INDIA: End 50-Year Crackdown in Manipur, Rights Groups Urge

In the world's largest democracy, people are shot to death on mere suspicion. For half a century, the population of Manipur State in northeast India has suffered from a law that gives the Indian army extraordinary powers, rights groups say.

DEVELOPMENT-AFRICA: Water and Improved Livelihoods

"Sanitation may hold the key to success or failure of the MDGs. It is really a time bomb in terms of health and the environment, waiting to be detonated," Professor Damas Mashauri told participants at a seminar on water and sustainable development taking place in Johannesburg, South Africa.

SRI LANKA: Tamil Rebels Defy Siege With Aerial Bombings

Aerial bombings carried out on the capital and a northern military base, late Tuesday night, have signalled that the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) remains a fighting force - despite being besieged in its headquarters of Kilinochchi by the Sri Lankan army.

TRADE: A Democratised WTO in Pause Mode

The breakdown of the July talks on a trade agreement, for the third time in a row, is testimony that the World Trade Organisation(WTO) has changed.

POLITICS-ETHIOPIA: A Career In Dissent

Frozen in disbelief on the steps of the courthouse where she presided as a federal judge, Bertukan Mideksa watched as a man she had just ordered released on bail was detained by plain-clothes police with no warrant and no apparent regard for the law.

POVERTY: Governments Still Don’t Do Enough

More than 116 million people in 131 countries across the world participated in the global "Stand Up and Take Action" campaign that became the biggest mass mobilisation on a single issue. Activists criticised the fact that the gap between the rich and the poor continues to increase, while governments refused to make poverty alleviation a priority.

EDUCATION-KENYA: Nomadic Schools for Mobile Girls

Five years after the introduction of free primary education (FPE) in Kenya, the enrolment of girls in schools continues to lag behind in Garissa, in Kenya's North Eastern region.

ENVIRONMENT-CHINA: Coal Far Costlier Than Thought – Study

Often criticised for its massive coal-based industries that jeopardise international efforts to combat global warming, China is undoubtedly the biggest victim of its voracious coal consumption.

POLITICS-ZIMBABWE: Women Demand Movement On Talks

Over 300 women gathered outside the Rainbow Towers Hotel in Harare on the morning of Oct. 27, dressed mostly in black and white. They were there to protest the prolonged impasse over the allocation of Cabinet ministries among Zimbabwe’s rival parties.

EL SALVADOR: Young People Get Summit, But No Convention

On the eve of the 18th Ibero-American Summit in the capital of El Salvador, President Antonio Saca still refuses to sign the bloc's Convention protecting young people's rights, even though the main theme of the meeting is youth and development.

ENVIRONMENT: Massive Shift to Clean Energy Could Start Tomorrow

An aggressive shift towards renewable power generation and energy effiency could save the world from the most devastating impacts of climate change, and at the same time create a multi-billion-dollar industry and save trillions of dollars in future fuel costs, experts say.

CARIBBEAN: US Election Spurs Hope – Tempered by Realism

The results of the opinion poll published by the Observer newspaper in Jamaica last weekend perhaps underscore the feelings of most Caribbean nationals.

EUROPE: Commission Shows its Corporate Hand

The intimate relationship between policymakers and multinational companies was illustrated Oct. 28 when the European Commission virtually handed over the headquarters of its trade department to the umbrella group for Europe's employers.

POLITICS-US: Analysts Question Timing of Syria Raid

A cross-border raid into Syria by U.S. forces in Iraq, and a subsequent stonewalling by U.S. officials unwilling to divulge details, has led to rampant speculation among U.S. analysts about the origins and meaning of the attack.

ENVIRONMENT: Europe Casts a Net for Dying Fish

The European Union has resisted calls for a ban on fishing for bluefin tuna in the Mediterranean despite warning signs that the species is being exploited towards extinction.

LABOUR: Women Migrants Need Protection, Empowerment

Filipino domestic worker Joy Romualdo treasures her Sundays not only because it offers her a respite from a week of hard work, but because she can still remember the time when having a day off was a luxury.

HEALTH-NEPAL: Meeting MDG on HIV/AIDS – A Dream?

Shibu Giri, programme officer at the National Association of People Living with HIV/AIDS in Nepal, who tested positive in 2000, believed he was fit and fine as his CD-4 count stayed normal.

DEVELOPMENT: Bretton Woods II: New Lifeline for Ailing Giants

Europe, by way of the hyperactive French President Nicolas Sarkozy, demands a Bretton Woods II, that is, a major shake-up of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank. This is as much a rescue operation for two organisations that have lost muscle as a call for a new financial architecture.

MIDEAST: So Easy for Israelis to Shoot to Kill

Israeli soldiers shot and killed three young Palestinians in the Ramallah district of the central West Bank last week. The Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) claimed the Palestinians were about to throw Molotov cocktails at soldiers and settlers in the Bet El settlement.

ECONOMY: EU Involvement in DRC Mining Project Draws Protest

The involvement of the European Union in a mining project in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has drawn a chorus of protest from local and international human rights advocates. They say the project is rife with problems relating to transparency and accountability.