ECONOMY-INDIA: Foreign Money Transfers Under the Scanner

With Indians spending more money abroad and even picking up blue chip firms the government has decided to take a closer look at suspected money laundering activity and dubious international fund transfers.

CLIMATE CHANGE: Greens, Lawmakers Assail World Bank Funds

"Climate Investment Funds" to be run by the World Bank and backed by the George W. Bush administration are drawing fire from lawmakers and environmentalists who say the initiatives will accomplish little against global warming.

Q&A: ‘Unlike the Wolf, Sheep Are Afraid of Freedom’

The censored world of Chinese contemporary writing is an unlikely place for the rise of literary mystery. But ‘Wolf Totem’, which has sold millions of copies in China and won the inaugural Man Asian Literary Prize last fall, is the ultimate whodunit.

POLITICS: Where Will Headscarf Verdict Lead Turkey?

A decision by Turkey's constitutional court Thursday to overturn a law lifting the ban on Islamic headscarves in the Muslim country will almost certainly heighten tensions in a country that has been a longstanding ally of the United States.

ENVIRONMENT-SPAIN: Activists, Business Join Forces on Solar Energy

An environmental organisation, a private company and an international bank signed an agreement Thursday in the capital of Spain to promote, install, manage and sell power plants fuelled by renewable energy sources.

PAKISTAN: School Bombings Force Girls to Drop Out

"I am disappointed about quitting school, but my parents want me to stay at home," says Sumaira Begum, a student of class 8 at the Government High School Mardan in Pakistan’s North West Frontier Province (NWFP). "On Mar. 20, my school was bombed after which nearly 100 girls including I stopped attending."

RIGHTS-ZIMBABWE: "Dictatorship Is Temporary"

Fourteen members of Women of Zimbabwe Arise, a Bulawayo-based human rights organisation, are being held in two prisons in the capital Harare. They were arrested while marching to demand that the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) intervene to end post-election violence; their case is just one illustration of escalating human rights abuses in Zimbabwe.

PAKISTAN: Kargil Conspiracy Still Unravelling

The ill-fated Kargil episode of 1999 continues to haunt Pakistan nine years after the crisis rocked South Asia. Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf and former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif continue to exchange allegations and counter allegations as to who was in fact responsible for orchestrating the misadventure that resulted in hundreds of deaths and finally ended up in a huge diplomatic embarrassment for Pakistan.

EDUCATION-KENYA: Students Pour In, Teachers Drain Away

Six hundred teachers have left classrooms in Kenyan schools for better paying jobs elsewhere in just the past six months, according to the Head Teachers Association and the Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT). That is about three teachers leaving the service every day.

POLITICS-US: Obama Walks Fine Line at Major Pro-Israel Meet

Speaking last year at the same forum, he received scattered boos. But as Senator Barack Obama strode towards the podium Wednesday morning at the annual policy conference of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), he was greeted with a standing ovation.

POLITICS-IRAQ: Possible Deal on Kirkuk Could Be a Stabiliser

A possible breakthrough over the fate of the contentious Iraqi province of Kirkuk appears to be underway, which could be a significant source of relief for the United States as it is trying hard to stabilise the country.

SOMALIA: Rising Food Prices Add to Woes

Ali Yusuf is a porter at Mogadishu's main Bakara market. He works as much as 12 hours a day, ferrying people's shopping from the market to their homes to earn a living and support his family of eight. But soaring food prices are hitting him hard.

MEXICO-US: Bold Anti-Drug Plan on the Rocks

The Merida Initiative, a U.S. anti-drug aid plan for Mexico and, to a lesser extent, Central America, is floundering. Originally trumpeted as an unprecedented instrument for cooperation, it is now the object of accusations that it would undermine national sovereignty.

Q&A: "We're Running the Risk of Unstoppable Climate Change"

Warming seawater, melting sea ice and glaciers, sea level rise, storm intensification, changes in ocean currents, growing "dead zones", and ocean acidification are just some of the signs that the oceans that cover 71 percent of our watery planet are changing.

BURMA: Thousands of Children Orphaned By Nargis

Ko Ko Aung remembers the moment when he thought he had lost his older brother, Wai Yan Soe, to the powerful waters that tore through their house on the night Cyclone Nargis struck, one month ago.

US/IRAN: Larijani’s Election Can Boost Congressional Diplomacy

Iranian Nobel prize laureate Shirin Ebadi has long argued that the United States and Iran need to have a dialogue with each other at three different levels: between their executive branches, between their civil societies and between their legislatures.

POLITICS: Obama Victory Resonates in Race-Conscious U.S.

"Tonight I can stand here and say that I will be the Democratic nominee for the president of the United States of America," Sen. Barack Obama told a crowd of supporters in St. Paul, Minnesota Tuesday, bringing an effective close to a 16-month Democratic primary process.

HEALTH-LATIN AMERICA: Tobacco Regulations as Solid as Smoke

Government funds to fight tobacco use in Latin America, which kills one million people each year, pale in comparison to the health costs of this epidemic and receive only a small portion of the tax revenues from the tobacco industry.

UNITED NATIONS: Africa Keeps Japan Guessing on Security Council Seat

If the Japanese government was expecting assurances from African nations that they would support its bid for a permanent seat at the UN Security Council, they have reason to be disappointed with the outcome of the fourth Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD IV) last week.

RIGHTS: Paper Promises Failing Trafficking Victims

Despite numerous international and regional treaties banning human trafficking, it remains a crime with low risks and high profits, said experts and diplomats at the first U.N. General Assembly open debate on the global slave trade Tuesday.

NORWAY: Talking Peace, Exporting Weapons

Peace builder Norway is the world's seventh largest exporter of weapons and ammunition, according to recent figures.