Misrata Rebuilds, Slowly

This week more than half the residents eligible to vote in Libya’s embattled coastal city of Misrata cast their ballots for local council representatives in their first democratic election in decades.

Haiti’s University Languishes in Ruins – Part 2

When the Interim Haiti Reconstruction Commission failed to approve, or even respond to, a proposal by the University of the State of Haiti (UEH) for a unified campus to replace the nine destroyed or badly damaged faculties in the capital, Vice Rector Fritz Deshommes was not surprised at the silence.

Haiti’s University Languishes in Ruins – Part 1

Two years after the earthquake, and despite the proposals written, the consortiums organised and the foreign delegations entertained, the University of the State of Haiti (Université d'Etat d'Haïti or UEH) still has not seen any "reconstruction", and the proposal for a university campus that would unite all 11 faculties remains a 25-year-old dream.

Women, Victims of War, Have No Seat at Negotiating Table

When the U.N. Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) held its inaugural meeting in London back in 1946, the U.S. delegate, Eleanor Roosevelt, read an open letter to "the women of the world" calling on governments to encourage women everywhere to participate in national and international affairs.

Honduran Government Seeks to Minimise Cost of Prison Fire

The government of Honduras hopes to reach friendly settlements with the families of inmates killed in the Comayagua prison fire, to avoid international lawsuits.

Afghan Refugees Hounded in Pakistan

The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government recently launched a harsh crackdown on illegal Afghan immigrants who have been pouring across the border into Pakistan, going so far as to request federal government permission to deal with the situation, which has deep social and economic implications for the host country.

Trust Deficit – Worst Fallout of Fukushima

Kazuya Tarukawa, 36, left a secure job in the Japanese capital to tend to his family’s organic farm located 100 km away from the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear reactor.

NIGER: Strained Welcome for 15,000 Malian Refugees

The little village of Chinagoder, on the Niger-Mali border, has become a refugee camp, flooded with Malian families fleeing fighting between their regular army and Tuareg rebels known as the MNLA - the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad.

SOUTH SUDAN: Refugees Reluctant to Move to Safety as War Looms

In the sprawling settlement of Yida, just south of the Sudan border, more than 20,000 people have gathered after fleeing battles in the country's Southern Kordofan state. But they now find themselves caught up in a new conflict, as recent clashes along the frontier have some warning of the possibility of war.

Political Will – and Money – Needed for Disaster Management

Managing the impact of increased disasters due to climate change will only be possible if such efforts are led by local communities, say non-governmental organisations working in climate change.

SOMALIA: Aid Dwindles, Disease Spreads

Doctors in Mogadishu are warning that famine victims in internally displaced camps have become vulnerable to contagious diseases like cholera and measles, as conditions here are ripe for an outbreak. This comes as internally displaced persons complain that relief aid to some camps has dwindled or stopped.

THAILAND: Bangkok Braces for Month of Floods

As the Thai Airways flight descends into Suvarnabhumi International Airport, passengers pull out cameras to snap pictures of flood waters rising inexorably and predicted to inundate the capital city by the end of the week.

AFRICA: Gov’ts Fail to Invest in Hungriest, Poorest Regions

For millennia, people have coped with drought in the Horn of Africa, comprised mainly of drylands. Yet today, more than 13 million people there are starving because of political instability, poor government policies and failure to invest in the world's poorest people, say experts here in Changwon.

SUDAN: Bombing the Homeless

Hawa Jundi sat on the ground outside a makeshift shelter where she and her family now live. A violent storm was moving in and lightning streaked toward the earth as the wind began blowing hard against the tarpaulin tied to a frame of sticks.

World Bank Reveals Crippling Donor Dependency in West Bank, Gaza

The World Bank drew attention to the ongoing devastation wrought by one of the world's longest standing conflicts with the publication Monday of a report documenting high levels of donor dependency in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Biofuels, Speculators Driving Food Price Surges

A new report on global hunger pinpoints factors at the heart of spikes in food prices it says are exacerbating the unfolding food crisis in the Horn of Africa.

SOMALIA: Rape – The Hidden Side of the Famine Crisis

When Aisha Diis* and her five children fled their home in Somalia seeking aid from the famine devastating the region, she could not have known the dangers of the journey, or even fathom that she would be raped along the way.

Somalia’s Al-Shabaab Vows More Attacks

Al-Shabaab has vowed to carry out more attacks in Mogadishu following a vehicle bomb blast that killed scores of people in the Somali capital.

Give Women the Seeds and They Can Feed the World

If women farmers were given more tools and resources, the number of hungry people in the world could be slashed by 100 to 150 million.

US: Expanding Network of Drone Bases To Hit Somalia, Yemen

As Somalia undergoes its worst famine in six decades and Yemen slides into civil war, the administration of President Barack Obama is expanding its network of bases to carry out drone strikes against suspected terrorists in both countries, according to reports published in two major U.S. newspapers Thursday.

Palestinians Face Large Cuts in U.S. Aid

With a vote on the Palestinians' status at the United Nations scheduled for next week, the Barack Obama administration has made its opposition to any upgrade of Palestinian status in the world body quite clear.