PHILIPPINES: Lumads Resist Inclusion In BJE

Ask Timuay Nanding Mudai how long he has been serving as traditional leader of the Subanon, one of the many indigenous groups based in Mindanao, Southern Philippines and he will tell you that he’s been holding this position "since birth".

Q&A: When Intelligence Is Used Unintelligently

All eyes were on Hans Blix, the seemingly unflappable Swede, on TV screens around the world before the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.

CARIBBEAN: Bracing for U.S. Sneeze

While United States lawmakers debate the pros and cons of providing a 700-billion-dollar bailout for floundering financial firms, Caribbean countries are bracing for the cold that will follow the proverbial sneeze in Washington.

MIDEAST: Breaking the Silence

An Israeli police commander has called them "provocateurs", "militants", and, "lawbreakers". Earlier in the year the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) decided that their presence in the city of Hebron, 30km south of Jerusalem in the Palestinian West Bank, constituted a security threat and banned them from the city, stating that any member of the organisation caught there would be expelled forthwith.

RIGHTS: Rendition Victims "Missing" in Ethiopia

A new report by Human Rights Watch (HRW) accuses the Ethiopian government of detaining at least 10 victims of unlawful rendition incommunicado and without charge since early 2007.

ECONOMY: Kenyan Companies Cautiously Venture Into Regional Market

Dr. Manu Chandaria (79) has been lionised as East Africa’s most respected chief executive officer of a company.

HEALTH: Dengue Threatens Asia Pacific Region

Over the past three decades, dengue fever has affected more and more countries in the Asia-Pacific region and is now regarded as the fastest of emerging mosquito-borne diseases.

DOMINICAN REPUBLIC: Dreams of Being a Regional Breadbasket

On the second day of a conference here on agricultural development, Dr. Rene Villarreal awakened hundreds of technicians and farmers from a siesta, leaving the dais and walking from table to table, using a remote microphone.

ENVIRONMENT: Companies Scramble for Ever-Scarcer Resources

As humanity runs out of oil and minerals, the extraction of previously untouched deposits suddenly pays off - financially. But experts warn that it will likely further accelerate climate change and seriously damage the environment.

ECONOMY-MEXICO: Analysts Warn of Knock-On Effects

Mexico's economy is wobbling because of the financial problems in its northern neighbour, with which it is closely interlinked. Unemployment is up, companies have put their plans on ice, the government has stopped putting out tenders, remittances from migrants are down, and exports have shrunk.

RIGHTS-MEXICO: Tlatelolco Massacre – 40 Years of Impunity

The rivers of ink that have been spilled in investigations, trials and the collection of testimony on the Oct. 2, 1968 massacre of student demonstrators in Tlatelolco square in Mexico City have made it clear that the state was responsible. But not one person has been sentenced, and no one even knows exactly how many young protesters died.

PAKISTAN: Eid Shopping Marred by Inflation, Fear of Violence

As the Muslim holy month of Ramadan draws to a close, the shopping frenzy around Pakistan increases in preparation for Eid, the joyous three-day festival of thanksgiving to celebrate the end of a period of abstinence, including dawn-to-dusk fasting.

EGYPT-REFUGEES: Stepping Stones Across the Desert

"When I left Darfur, I left the hell of death and entered the hell of life. That is the only difference," said Galoud*, one of the many Darfuri refugees who have escaped to Egypt.

MEXICO: Marching On the Capital

Dozens of indigenous people walking naked along a main avenue in support of their demand for land, or thousands of stick-wielding teachers blocking main streets at rush hour, are almost daily occurrences in the Mexican capital.

RIGHTS-ARGENTINA: New Methods to Identify Dictatorship’s Missing Children

DNA testing and court resolutions in Argentina have been key factors in speeding up the work of establishing the true identities of the children who were stolen from their parents, victims of forced disappearance, and given to other families to raise during the 1976-1983 military dictatorship.

POLITICS-US: Cartoonists Enjoy a Rollicking Race

In spite of budget cutbacks, the challenge of learning to do their work with ever-changing computer software and other pressures, U.S. newspaper editorial cartoonists are thriving in the closing months of the 2008 presidential election.

IRAQ: Is Kurdish-Arab “Honeymoon” Over?

Tensions between Kurds and the Iraqi government over disputed territory have heightened recently, raising fears that they might lead to ethnic clashes between Kurds and Arabs at a time when the war-torn country is slowly recovering from years of sectarian violence between Shia and Sunni Arabs.

ISRAEL: A Second Woman PM On Her Way

Just a week after Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni was charged with forming a new government, it looks as if the new leader of the ruling Kadima party is on the way to cobbling together a new ruling coalition.

EUROPE: Preparing to Get at Resources of the Poor

European Union officials are drawing up a new strategy for giving multinational companies greater access to minerals and wood located in poor countries.

AFGHANISTAN: Subsidised Fuel Trail Winds Back to Pakistan

In a teeming petrol market on the outskirts of Kabul, black market traders sell fuel to everyone from individual customers to large business groups. Although much of this petrol comes from Iran or the Central Asian countries, a good amount also hails from Pakistan, where government subsidies have made the fuel much cheaper than in Afghanistan.

PAKISTAN: Tax Payers Pay for Subsidised Fuel to Afghanistan

Petrol pumps in Pakistan’s border regions do brisk business. Jerry cans of fuel are carried both clandestinely and openly across the porous frontier for sale in neighbouring Afghanistan.