WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM: Time to Tackle Tough Choices

The international business and political leaders who will gather this week in Switzerland for the World Economic Forum (WEF) will be called upon to "take responsibility for tough choices," said the event's founder and executive chairman, Klaus Schwab.

WORLD SOCIAL FORUM: Trade Unions to Attempt More Unity

The world's largest trade union network will be campaigning to make globalisation more "favourable, equal and secure" for workers when it joins the fifth World Social Forum (WSF) in Porto Alegre, Brazil later this week.

WORLD SOCIAL FORUM: India’s Dalits Create Space for Themselves

To the casual visitor, Gaurav Apartments on the eastern edge of India's national capital looks like any other block of middle-class residential flats, set into a genteel neighbourhood patronised by doctors, engineers and other professionals.

WORLD SOCIAL FORUM: In Cambodia, Hope Rises from Squalor

A foul muddy track - with garbage piled up high on either side - is the only access to the Phnom Penh Thmei squatter community, built on a swamp on the fringe of the Cambodian capital.

WORLD SOCIAL FORUM: The Varied Leftisms of South America

On its return to Brazil this year, the World Social Forum will encounter a wide spectrum of progressive and leftist South American governments, determined to promote regional integration while striving, through trial and error, to respond to the demands of their increasingly vocal societies.

TRADE-SOUTHERN AFRICA: Textile Industries in Turmoil

A few years ago, the tiny kingdom of Lesotho appeared to have a lot on offer for investors: cheap labour, generous tax incentives and proximity to the regional powerhouse, South Africa.

WORLD SOCIAL FORUM: Slums Search For a Global Voice

The World Social Forum that gets under way this week will bring together a large number of slum dwellers' representatives. "Never again an isolated struggle" is their slogan as they seek common solutions to common problems.

WORLD SOCIAL FORUM: In Thailand, Poor Show Power from the Streets

Prasittiporn Kan-Onsri spends long hours plotting to shake up Thailand's political establishment. D-Day for the 38-year-old activist is Feb. 6 when the country goes to the polls to elect a new parliament.

WORLD SOCIAL FORUM: In Bangladesh, Potters Shape Their Future

Old man Maneendra Paal talks with his head bent and hands busy casting bases for bird-patterned earthen vases, one of the popular items produced at this small-scale pottery industry in the Bijoypur village in Comilla, a district in eastern Bangladesh.

WORLD SOCIAL FORUM: Porto Alegre Puts Mumbai’s Lessons to the Test

Returning to its original venue of Porto Alegre, Brazil, this year's fifth World Social Forum (WSF) will attempt to incorporate some of the lessons learned from the 2004 edition, held in Mumbai, India.

WORLD SOCIAL FORUM: Seeking Ways to Include the Excluded

While civil society activists would like to see a wider spectrum of representation at this year's World Social Forum in Porto Alegre, Brazil, the participant profile will undoubtedly be much the same as at previous editions, composed primarily of a highly educated elite, with the large majority hailing from the host country itself.

WORLD SOCIAL FORUM: Indigenous Peoples Claim Their Own Space

''We are the other world,'' declared the organisers of the indigenous segment of this year's World Social Forum in Porto Alegre, Brazil, the fifth global gathering of non-governmental groups under the theme, ''Another world is possible''.

WORLD SOCIAL FORUM: Sub-Region Integration a Challenge to FTAA

The fifth annual World Social Forum will take place Jan. 26-31 in the southern Brazilian city of Porto Alegre amidst an upsurge in Latin American sub-regional integration efforts, bolstered by the obvious failure of the project to create the hemisphere-wide Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA).

WORLD SOCIAL FORUM: Pan-Amazonian Meet Highlights Diversity

Many will be arriving by water, after travelling for days in dug-out canoes or other rustic watercraft. The novel form of transport is just one of the peculiarities that sets the Pan-Amazonian Social Forum apart from the other social forums held around the world since 2001.

WORLD SOCIAL FORUM: NGOs Quietly Fill Vital Social Roles

The broad spectrum of social activism embodied by non-governmental organisations (NGOs) will once again be the driving force behind the fifth annual World Social Forum in the southern Brazilian city of Porto Alegre.