TRADE: UNCTAD “Forgets” Real Risks Faced by African Farmers

The latest UNCTAD report on science and technology repeats previous calls for a "green revolution" in African agriculture but contains no mention of the real and present dangers that the international trade and financial framework presents to African farmers.

SRI LANKA: A Former Woman Combatant Struggles to Pick Up the Pieces

As a young woman, Ranjani (not her real name), a 32-year-old Tamil from Sri Lanka's eastern Batticaloa district, only had bright hopes for tomorrow.

PAKISTAN: Prevalence of Hepatitis Infection Still Alarming

Unable to afford treatment for his disease, Azizur Rehman, 29, has been suffering from hepatitis C for the past one year. "My elder sister died of the same killer ailment one year ago for lack of treatment," he laments.

HEALTH-NEPAL: Multiple Problems Mar Fight Against HIV/AIDS

To women who have lost their husbands to the killer AIDS disease, learning a skill to earn a living could be a matter of life and death.

US-VIETNAM: 300 Million Dollars to Clean Up Agent Orange

Thirty-five years after the end of the Vietnam War, a joint U.S.-Vietnamese panel endorsed a 10-year, 300-million-dollar "plan of action" to deal with the deadly health and environmental legacy of the U.S. military's widespread use of "Agent Orange" during the conflict.

CENTRAL AMERICA: Food Security Further Undermined by Climate Disasters

Adverse climatic conditions and weather-related disasters are damaging crops in El Salvador and neighbouring countries in Central America, aggravating the food vulnerability that the region already faces.

AFRICA: Climate Change Assistance so Near and Yet so Far

Technology transfer and aid for trade could assist least developed countries (LDCs) suffering the effects of climate change. But negotiations in the World Trade Organisation (WTO) are not helping to make this a reality, while aid for trade lands up at the wrong institutions, such as the World Bank.

INDIA: Mangroves Face Severe Threat from Human Activities

When a super cyclone devastated the coastal districts of Orissa state in 1999, the government pledged to regenerate 3,000 hectares of mangrove. Or so forest official Chandra Sekhar Kar thought.

ISRAEL: Censure Follows Raid on Gaza Aid Flotilla

The Israeli government's spin machine has launched into full-throttle as the country faces yet another diplomatic crisis and harsh international criticism for Monday's raid on the Free Gaza (FG) humanitarian aid flotilla that left 19 people dead and about 50 injured.

Security Council, Short of Resolution, Condemns Israel

After a 12-hour emergency session that lasted until early Tuesday, the 15-member U.N. Security Council was unanimous in its condemnation of Israel for the killing of at least 10 civilians who were part of a flotilla of six ships carrying humanitarian aid to Gaza.

ITALY: Building a Sustainable Future With Straw and Wood

Pescomaggiore village, destroyed by the earthquake that hit the mountain region of L'Aquila in central Italy on Apr. 6, 2009, is now being rebuilt by its 40-odd inhabitants with straw and wood.

Fears Grow over Oil Spill’s Long-Term Effects on Food Chain

As oil continues gushing from the ocean floor into the Gulf of Mexico, with no sign of stopping until a new well is finished this August, scientists, environmentalists and local residents are beginning to reckon with the reality of a massive annihilation of sea creatures and wildlife.

North-South Conservation Divide: “Show Me the Money”

Developing countries rich in plants and animals but poor in financial and technical resources refused to make binding commitments to halt the unraveling of the planet's biological infrastructure at the close of a major meeting Friday at the U.N.'s African headquarters in Nairobi.

BIODIVERSITY: Imagine a World Without Bluefin Tuna

The bluefin tuna, an "apex predator" fish of the Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean Sea, is condemned to extinction within two years by the inaction of the industrialised North and international regulatory bodies, predict marine biologists and environmentalists.

MIDEAST: Israeli Navy Storms Humanitarian Flotilla

Israeli naval commandos shot dead at least 16 people and wounded over 30 on Monday morning, as they attacked an unarmed humanitarian and civilian flotilla - in international waters - trying to bring desperately needed aid to Gaza. The death toll was expected to rise.

PAKISTAN: Lake Disaster Triggers New Displacements

Up until Saturday the Attabad Lake in northern Pakistan had been rising one metre every day and was thus on the verge of breaking its banks, observed Lieutenant General Nadeem Ahmed, chairman of the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA).

SOUTH-EAST ASIA: Local Communities Tapped to Counter Mekong Floods

With monsoon rains beginning to sweep across mainland south-east Asia, mobile phones are being put to further use as part of a plan to protect communities living on the banks of the Mekong River from flash floods.

AFRICA: Small Scale Farmers Vulnerable to New Wheat Fungus

Smallholder wheat farmers are at risk as new mutations of a wheat-killing fungus have recently been discovered.

More Deepwater Disasters on the Horizon?

Despite a federal moratorium on offshore oil drilling, new permits and controversial environmental waivers for oil rigs continue to be granted, sparking criticism from policymakers and environmentalists.

And Not a Drop to Drink for Palestinians

A new desalination facility has come up here on Israel's Mediterranean seashore, to soothe Israel's chronic fresh water shortage. An elaborate network of pipes beneath the beach reaches westward far into the sea. Eastward, it links up with the national water system.

Legal Groups Protest Probe of Guantanamo Lawyers

The American Bar Association, the American Civil Liberties Union, and numerous other legal organisations are demanding that the Senate Armed Services Committee reject a provision in a House of Representatives bill that would mandate an investigation into lawyers representing Guantanamo Bay detainees.