MEDIA-INDIA: Columnists Support Kashmir's Secession

"Anti-national" is the charge hurled in India at the usual radical suspects who argue for the right to self-determination of the Kashmiri people.

Q&A: "I Appreciate This Unique Moment"

Whether he wins or loses in the November election, Barack Obama will have made U.S. history as the first African American to lead a major political party.

DEVELOPMENT: Nice, Fuzzy, Positive Language on Aid

Ministers and senior government officials from around the world have reportedly agreed an action plan to make the system of aid more effective after days of hard negotiations that pitted some of the world’s poorest nations against donor giants.

POLITICS-US: Candidates Stay the Course on Latin America

With an election to replace an immensely unpopular president just weeks away, Republican nominee John McCain and Democratic candidate Barack Obama have both sought to distance themselves from the record of George W. Bush - but when it comes to Latin America, neither candidate promises a major break with the policies of the last eight years.

POLITICS-US: Christian Right Summit Still Wields Clout

If the Republican Party's vice presidential nominee, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, survives the slings and arrows of intense media coverage, her next major appearance could be before an adoring crowd of conservatives and Christian evangelicals at the Sep. 12-14 Values Voter Summit in Washington.

POLITICS-US: Canada’s Tar Sands Lobbyists Focus on Democrats

As the U.S. election campaign kicks into overdrive, Canadian politicians and oil executives are stepping up lobbying efforts to make sure whoever controls the White House keeps purchasing notoriously dirty oil from the Alberta tar sands.

EU: For European People Too

Several events over the past year have raised fundamental questions about whether the European Union's primary mission is to ensure the smooth operation of an economic bloc or to ensure a decent quality of life for its 490 million citizens.

Q&A: "The U.S. Election Is Going to Be Won at the Margins"

Michigan is a key state either presidential nominee needs to win the White House on Nov. 4. Unlike Democratic nominee Barack Obama, John McCain has carried Michigan before when he ran against President George Bush.

RIGHTS-TRINIDAD: Ruling Dismays Death Penalty Advocates

A court order lifting the threat of execution hanging over 52 convicted killers in Trinidad and Tobago has put the government under renewed pressure from the opposition, death penalty supporters, the public and lawyers to set out clearly its position on the ultimate sentence.

PAKISTAN: Outlawed Taliban Have Free Run of Media

Taliban factions in the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) and tribal areas have been outlawed and their accounts frozen by the Pakistan government. But that has not in the least bit altered their presence in the media.

MEDIA-PHILIPPINES: Community Radio – Balm in Troubled Areas

Amidst the raging conflict between government forces and Muslim rebels on the island of Mindanao, the religiously mixed population in the North Cotabato region looks to a community radio station as a beacon of peace.

POLITICS: Shanghai Cooperation Organisation Split on Georgia

Moscow’s decision to recognise the two separatist regions of Georgia as independent states has exposed the divergence of geopolitical interests within the six-nation Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO).

INDIA: Dialogue Missing as Kashmir Erupts

Even as the Jammu region of the strife-torn Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir is settling down to normality and peace, a two month-old turmoil in the Muslim-majority Kashmir Valley shows no signs of abating.

Ecobreves – HONDURAS: New Environmental Rules Announced

The Honduran government has announced new environmental regulations two years after the free trade agreement with the United States, known as CAFTA, entered into force.

Ecobreves – BRAZIL: African Palm to Reforest the Amazon

An agreement between Brazil's ministries of Agriculture and Environment authorizes utilizing the African palm (Elaeis guineensis) and other exotic species for recuperating forests in the country's Amazon region.

Ecobreves – VENEZUELA: Flower Covers Vital Reservoir

The "bora" (eichhornia crassipes), is a species of tropical water hyacinth that has spread like a green carpet over two-thirds of La Mariposa reservoir in Venezuela. The reservoir covers 54 hectares and has a capacity of 8 million liters, which supplies most of the Venezuelan capital.

Ecobreves – CHILE: Demand for Dioxin Information

The EcoOceans Center, the Latin American Environmental Conflicts Observatory (OLCA) and the Citizen Consumers League have called on all Chileans to abstain from eating pork during the national holidays of Sep. 18-19.

PAKISTAN: Giving Democracy a Chance

As Pakistan appears to lurch from one political crisis to another, there may be a silver lining in the army continuing to keep its distance from politics and the political leadership affirming the democratic process, despite the setbacks.

MEXICO: Peasants Seek Ways to Block Canadian-Run Mine

The Canadian mining corporation Minefinders has explored a rural area of the northern Mexican state of Chihuahua for 14 years. But as it gets ready to begin mining gold and silver there, its plans are threatened by peasant farmers' protests.

DEVELOPMENT: Peace Baskets Bring Hope to Rwandan Women

In the courtyard of a red brick home in the district of Gitarama outside Kigali, three women sit together on a bench, laughing and gossiping as they wrap lengths of crimson twine around a curl of bunched straw. While it may seem like little more then Rwandan tradition, these weavers represent an economic success the tiny landlocked country has earned by the hands of its women.

DEVELOPMENT: Towards an 'Aid-Free' World?

Imagine the dawn of a day when development aid ministries in Europe are shut down because there are no countries left in the 'South' that depend on financial assistance from the 'North'.