Cooperation Strategic To Protect Tigris and Euphrates

On a dusty street in the north-eastern Iraqi city of Sulaimaniya one recent day, an elderly man sold heaps of tomatoes, fruits and other fresh produce from a makeshift trolley.

MALAWI: Uncertainty Over Role for Traditional Birth Attendants

When the ban on traditional birth attendants was lifted last year, pregnant women quickly appeared at Dorothy Chirwa's door in Malombe village in Mangochi, a district on the southern shores of Lake Malawi. Chirwa was among the thousands of TBAs banned from providing women with care in 2007.

TRADE: Chic Carpets Link Mozambique, Denmark and, Soon, Brazil

In two rooms in a small Mozambican coastal town, 70 women are cutting, weaving and packaging fabric carpets destined for eclectic design and homeware stores in Denmark and, soon, Brazil and South Africa.

Caribbean Tourism Officials Seek Concessions from Europe

Caribbean officials gathered in Brussels for the region's annual tourism summit, the first to be held in Europe, are urging their biggest development partner to draft policies supporting the lifeblood sector and ease restrictions such as Britain's Air Passenger Duty (APD), which they say are holding back its growth.

LIBYA: Benghazi Stands Firm Against Gaddafi’s Gains

The red, green and black flag-waving Libyans calling for the downfall of Muammar Gaddafi are staging a show of force in Benghazi. The support for the three-week-old revolution comes at the rebels' lowest military moment.

LIBYA: Religious Leaders Hold Out Against Gaddafi

Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi claims Al-Qaeda and other Muslim extremists are behind the recent rebellion to oust him from power. Salem Geber, the most well-known cleric in Benghazi, Libya's second-largest city, says this explanation is not only wrong, but a vintage Gaddafi tactic to inspire fear.

ITALY: Migrants Settle Into Permanent Struggle

The momentous political events in North Africa have been accompanied by increasingly apocalyptic warnings from the Italian government of a mass influx of unwanted immigration from Tunisia and Libya.

Ecobreves – CUBA: Drought Threatens the West

The drought hitting the westernmost region of Cuba will last through the month of March, predicts the Cuban Meteorology Institute's climate center.

Ecobreves – BRAZIL: Rain Shortages in the North to Worsen in 21st Century

By 2100, droughts will be as much as 40 percent more severe in the Brazilian Amazon and Northeast regions, and rainfall 30 percent more intense in the southeast of South America, including the Paraná-La Plata Basin, predicts a report from the National Institute for Climate Change Science and Technology (INCT).

Ecobreves – HONDURAS: A Boost for Community Gardens

The Honduran capital's city government is setting up organic community gardens to improve food security in low-income neighborhoods, given the forecasts for local food shortages resulting from climate change and deforestation.

NAMIBIA: Water in the Kambashu

For Namibia's capital city, the goal of sustainable water and sanitation is a major challenge for the 21st century.

Botswana Parliament’s Speaker a Well-Loved Woman

It would have been hard for a teenaged Margaret Nnananyana Nasha to imagine that she would grow up to become one of the most powerful figures in Botswana's government.

Johannes Myburgh talks to residents of Maputo suburb Chamanculo enjoying running water for the first time thanks to a community-centred infrastructure upgrade.

Johannes Myburgh talks to residents of Maputo suburb Chamanculo enjoying running water for the first time thanks to a community-centred infrastructure upgrade.

U.S.: Tears and Anger after Wisconsin Passes Anti-Union Bill

Emotions are running high at the State Capitol in Madison, Wisconsin after Republican senators passed a revised version of a budget repair bill that will take away public workers' collective bargaining rights in an ad hoc session Wednesday night.

Ancient Buddhas Will Not Be Rebuilt – UNESCO

Afghanistan's historic Bamiyan Buddhas, destroyed by the Taliban 10 years ago, will not be reconstructed despite claims the 1,500-year-old statues could be repaired, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) said Thursday.

PAKISTAN: At Home, and In Hell

"Life is next to hell as we pass the entire day and night inside four walls of our houses. Militancy and the local male-dominated culture are the reasons for the women’s problems," says Jabeena Bibi, 38, a resident of Khyber Agency, one of the seven tribal districts of the Federally Administered Tribal Area (FATA) of Pakistan.

YEMEN: Death Toll Rising at Peaceful Protests

Despite an ongoing dialogue between U.S. officials, human rights groups and Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh regarding concerns over the use of lethal force to quell anti- government protests throughout the Persian Gulf state, the death toll continues to rise in Yemen's port city of Aden and in other locations.

Bloggers Track Down China’s Lost Boys

Peng Gaofeng spent three years looking for his abducted son, launching an Internet campaign that eventually drew 300,000 followers. Last month, Peng was reunited with his son, and the 34-year-old has vowed to help the thousands of Chinese parents who are still trying to find their missing children.

MALAWI: In Praise of Dry Sanitation

At its best it is waterless, odorless, eminently affordable and has a rich fertiliser as byproduct, yet for residents of Malawi's informal settlements, dry sanitation retains a whiff of the unwanted.

Officials say illegal connections are hampering efforts to provide water to some 200 000 people in the John Laing township of Lusaka.

Officials say illegal connections are hampering efforts to provide water to some 200 000 people in the John Laing township of Lusaka. Brian Moonga reports from Zambia’s capital.

Despite Reforms, Whistleblowers at Development Banks Face Retaliation

Multilateral lending institutions – like the governments they serve – are ostensibly committed to the values of transparency and accountability. But more often than not, insiders who blow the whistle on waste, fraud and abuse at institutions like the World Bank are retaliated against, not rewarded, and typically find themselves out of a job for daring to speak out about wrongdoing.