DEVELOPMENT: Turning South-South Rhetoric into Action

While leaders of developing countries have long talked about strengthening cooperation amongst themselves, some say little has been done to translate this into action. At a meeting of the third India-Brazil-South Africa (IBSA) Business Summit in New Delhi, however, discussions were all about turning intent into enterprise.

DEVELOPMENT: A Billion Hungry People Need Rescue Plan Too

Relief for the world's hungry remains a distant prospect, with this year's "Global Hunger Index" (GHI) attesting that even before the ongoing food crisis, 33 countries had "alarming" or "extremely alarming" levels of hunger.

POLITICS-US: Palin and Christian Right on Abortion Warpath

Although the issue of abortion has not come up in either of the U.S. presidential or vice presidential debates, it is very much in play on the campaign trail, especially in a number of battleground states.

RIGHTS-US: Abused Woman Waits 12 Years for Asylum

In what some government critics are citing as an egregious example of public foot-dragging and bureaucratic inefficiency in immigration rule-making, the woman at the centre of one of the United States' longest-running asylum disputes may now be in further jeopardy.

DEVELOPMENT: Crisis Both a Distraction and an Opportunity

Despite intense media focus on the U.S. presidential campaign and the ongoing economic turmoil, organisers of "Stand Up and Take Action" events this weekend are confident that hundreds of thousands of citizens in this country will not forget the world's poorest.

TRADE-AFRICA: Red Faces Over EPAs Red Herring

Senior European Union officials have admitted being embarrassed at how the bloc’s own procedures are delaying them from signing economic partnership agreements (EPAs) with Africa.

BURMA: New Constitution – Radical Change or Fig Leaf?

After more than 15 years in the drafting, Burma unveiled its new constitution in February. The 194-page document has generated a widely disparate response.

MEDIA-PAKISTAN: Sexual Harassment – Routine for Women Journos

Pakistan’s mushrooming electronic media has transformed the political landscape in this South Asian nation where illiteracy bars some 60 percent of the people from reading newspapers. It has also thrown up new challenges for young people entering media, particularly women.

DEVELOPMENT: Challenging the Bio-fuel-Hunger Paradigm

Participants at The Third India-Brazil-South Africa (IBSA) Business Forum 2008 came together here to debunk the belief that development of bio-fuels would invariably exacerbate global hunger. Conventional wisdom has it that increased production of bio-fuel - particularly ethanol - will invariably result in decreasing acreage for food grain production, rising food prices and a surge in hunger and malnutrition. Participants at the Forum - held in New Delhi during the lead-up to the third IBSA Summit - declared that this was not necessarily true.

ECONOMY: Poor Sidelined in Rush to Contain Financial Crisis

The worst market crisis since the 1930s has dominated financial leaders' talks here, stoking misgivings that the world's poor are being overlooked.

ECONOMY: Nobel Honours Man Who Told Bush to "Please Go Away"

Paul Krugman, a professor at Princeton University who is best known for his New York Times columns - frequently involving scathing assaults on the policies of the George W. Bush administration - was awarded the 2008 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for his research on international trade and economic geography.

Q&A: 'Engagement, Not Collaboration With Business'

The IUCN has elected Ashok Khosla its new president. Widely recognised as a bridge between conservation and development, theory and practice, the traditional and the new, and between the North and the South, Khosla chairs the India-based Development Alternatives Group, a non-profit organisation established in 1983 "for creating large-scale sustainable livelihoods." He is also president of the Club of Rome, a global think-tank and centre of innovation and initiative.

DEVELOPMENT: Signs of Hope for Ethiopia’s Children

Amid the hardship facing Ethiopia's children, there are signs that conditions may be improving and that children's lives are changing for the better.

MIDEAST: Israel May Have Become a Liability for U.S.

The relationship between two of Iran's strongest critics, the U.S. and Israel, is once again under the spotlight as the international heat on Iran's alleged nuclear programme increases following a warning from International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) director-general Mohamed ElBaradei for the Islamic republic to show more transparency.

ZIMBABWE: Transport Costs Ground Workers, Employers

Every evening, Barbara Taruvona, the owner of New Styles Hair salon in Harare has to face a queue of her employees at the entrance to her office for their daily cash allowance for transport.

ECONOMY-CHINA: Flirting With Land Tenure Reforms

Faced with a deepening global financial meltdown, the Chinese communist party is contemplating far-reaching internal reforms capable of insulating the country from the worst effects of the crisis such as by loosening its grip over land ownership.

Ecobreves – CHILE: Government Promotes Solar Panels

The government of Chile this week will send a bill to Parliament to reduce taxes on the installation of solar panels on newly constructed homes that are worth up to 4,500 production units (Unidades de Fomento, UF), about 160,000 dollars.

Ecobreves – CUBA: Vaccines for Hurricane-Hit Population

Residents older than one year in the town of Holguín, one of the Cuban provinces hardest hit by Hurricane Ike, began receiving immunizations against leptospirosis with a homeopathic vaccine produced in Cuba.

Ecobreves – VENEZUELA: Action for Sloths

The southeastern district of the capital known as Baruta will place signs in public areas about the movement among trees -- and possible fall -- of brown-throated three-toad sloths (Bradypus variegatus), relatives of the anteater and the armadillo that move at just 200 meters per hour.

Ecobreves – BRAZIL: Housing Credits Require Certified Lumber

The leading provider of housing finances in Brazil, the government-run Federal Economic Bank, will only finance buildings made from certified legally-cut lumber, beginning in 2009.

Ecobreves – HONDURAS: Indians Aim to Generate Their Own Energy

Residents of the indigenous town of Tomalá, in the western Honduran department of Lempira, are seeking resources to build a mini-hydroelectric dam that would generate 10 to 15 megawatts.