VIETNAM: Rising Mekong Tests ‘Living With Floods’ Strategy

Rising water levels, the result of heavy monsoon rains across Vietnam’s southern Mekong Delta, are sounding alarm bells throughout the country, and proving to be a major test for its flood control strategy.

Q&A: Zimbabwean Women Have Had ‘‘More Trauma'' After Independence

Zimbabwean women have experienced higher levels of trauma, including violence and lack of food, after the country's independence from Britain in 1980 than before.

CULTURE-NIGERIA: Writers, Film-makers Defy Censors

"I don't sell cocaine," says the video vendor in Kano's Rimi market when I ask for Adam Zango's music video CD Bahaushiya. He is not referring to the white powder, but instead a new illegal substance - Hausa films that have not passed through the Kano State Censors Board.

POLITICS: Obama Clear Winner in World Opinion

In a new international poll by the BBC World Service, all 22 countries surveyed would prefer that Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama wins the U.S. presidential election on Nov. 4.

POLITICS-CAUCASUS: Media Guilty as 'Fog of War' Clears

As the ‘fog of war’ clears over the Caucasus and the United Nations prepares to set up peace missions in Abhkazia and South Ossetia, what stands out is the apparently partisan role played by Western media in last month’s five-day armed conflict.

RIGHTS-US: Abolitionists Hope for Swing to Democrats in States

The two U.S. presidential candidates have both expressed support for the death penalty, but abolitionist activists are hoping that pragmatism and a swing to the Democrats in the state elections in November will inevitably edge the country along the road to total abolition whoever wins the presidency.

PHILIPPINES: Organic Farming – The Way Forward

Sustainable agriculture was far from farmer Peter Desisto’s mind when he went to an organic farming seminar organised by the Philippine Rural Reconstruction Movement (PRRM) ten years ago. He and other farmers attended because they heard that PRRM was giving out loans.

A lens of their own: Ethipian children put themselves in the picture

SOUTH ASIA: UN Peacekeeping Pushes Democracy Back Home

The lure of serving in the United Nations peace keeping operations, where soldiers have a chance to take home four times the pay and allowances they normally make in this region, can act as a deterrent against gross human rights violations by such troop contributors as Nepal and Bangladesh.

BOOKS-US: "A Policy of Deliberate Cruelty"

Perhaps the most thorough and informative book about the George W. Bush administration's approval of the use of torture and "extraordinary renditions" of alleged terrorists to third countries has continued to stay on bestseller lists.

AFRICA: Civil Society Gains Strength at AU

The launch of the African Union’s official civil society council may strengthen the continent’s ability to address human rights violations and tackle poverty, activists say.

POLITICS: Slow Sunni Integration Could Derail Iraq Successes

Amid reports that the government of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has launched a campaign to disband the so-called Awakening Movement, or Sahwa, concerns among analysts and policy makers here is growing that such an effort could result in a resumption of sectarian violence, if not civil war.

AN ANTHOLOGY OF INFAMY

Spanish radio personality Federico Jimenez Losantos has called Barack Obama a hollow caricature and said that comparing him to Paris Hilton is insulting to her. McCain, he says, has done nothing since he left Hanoi, but his wife Cindy is more interesting because she\'d be a good lay, writes Joaquin Roy, \'\'Jean Monnet\'\' professor and Director of the European Union Centre of the University of Miami. More of his remarks: Castro should hold off on dying and live on with his artificial anus, suffering a prolonged and agonising death from Parkinson\'s disease. After him on the \"kill\" list would come Hugo Chavez, the missing link. How does he get away with this? In this analysis, Roy writes that anything goes. It is believed that whatever is shown on TV is true and credible. Few know that Jimenez Losantos was tried and found guilty of slandering impeccable figures of the right like Ruiz Gallardon and Jose Antonio Zarzalejos, ex-editor of the newspaper ABC. And no one has the courage to sue for significant damages, American style as opposed to the 36-100,000 euro fines imposed by the Madrid courts for slander. No one is bringing criminal charges for defamation of character despite the fact that it is clearly defined in the criminal code. At present, the newspaper barons that are protecting this systematic operation are not giving it a second thought.

DEVELOPMENT-ETHIOPIA: Understanding Poverty's Impact on Children

When the school bell rings, Alemtsehay and her three younger sisters rush home to change out of their school uniforms and into tattered clothes to go out begging around Bole Road, one of Addis Ababa's smarter areas.

TRADE-KENYA: A Woman Navigating the Obstacles to the ‘Big Money’

‘‘I enjoy the trade,’’ says Sonia Gateri as she ushers me into her office next to the Yaya Centre in the Kenyan capital. It is a hot afternoon and she has been busy most of the morning, preparing for a trip to Tanzania later in the evening.

ECONOMY: Increased Nuclear Energy Demand Boosts Namibia

The worldwide scramble for energy sources due to dwindling fossil fuel reserves has placed renewed emphasis on nuclear energy as solution for future needs. As a result, Namibia in south-western Africa is experiencing a uranium boom.

LAOS: Questions Rise With Worst Floods in Decades

When local people in Laos talk about floods, they always look back to 1966 - the year the Mekong River burst its banks so fast that no one was prepared.

RIGHTS-ZIMBABWE: NGO Activity Still Limited

Despite the Aug. 29 lifting of a ban on the operations of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in Zimbabwe, representatives of civil society report they are still unable to operate freely.

AFGHANISTAN: US-NATO Airstrikes Bring Higher Civilian Toll

Ramped-up U.S. and NATO airstrikes in Afghanistan are causing an increased civilian death toll, raising concerns about the fallout from civilian deaths on the war effort against the Taliban insurgency, according to a major new report by Human Rights Watch (HRW) released here Monday.

PAKISTAN: Zardari – Victim of Many Prejudices

After sweeping Pakistan's presidential elections, Asif Ali Zardari, husband of the late, twice-elected prime minister Benazir Bhutto, called his triumph the ‘’victory of democracy’’. But this triumph follows a flood of criticism against Zardari in the domestic and foreign media.

EUROPE: Divisions Rise Over Ex-Soviet Countries

Few, if any, regions present a greater challenge for the European Union's foreign policy than the former Soviet Union.