TRADE: Caribbean Questions EU Development Pledges

When Caribbean leaders sit across the table from their European counterparts at a May summit in Spain, high on their agenda will be the problems experienced by banana and sugar producers in gaining meaningful access to the European market.

Q&A: “EPAs Will Undermine Democracy in Africa”

The current course of the talks on economic partnership agreements (EPAs) is particularly destructive for low income African countries and may contract democratic space in such countries even further.

RIGHTS: UNESCO in Disarray Over Controversial Prize

As UNESCO’s executive board meets here in the first of its two sessions per year, behind-the-scenes wrangling could result in a controversial life sciences prize being put on hold indefinitely.

LATIN AMERICA-EU: Labour Pains

Trade with the European Union has not significantly improved the situation of workers in Latin America, in spite of its volume having doubled between 1990 and 2007, according to a study by two Chilean academics.

RIGHTS: EU Boosts Arms Manufacturers

Arms traders are to be given a central role in formulating a new European Union (EU) blueprint for stimulating weapons production, it has been confirmed.

RIGHTS: Death Penalty Lingers in Former Soviet Republics

The executions of two Belarus citizens in March and calls by Russian senators to reintroduce capital punishment for terrorists are being seen as indications that the death penalty is not about to fade out soon in the former Soviet republics.

RIGHTS: Spain’s Most Famous Judge May Be Suspended

Spanish Judge Baltasar Garzón, who became world-famous when he issued the warrant that resulted in former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet's arrest in London in 1998, is now facing legal charges himself, which could cost him his job.

TRADE: Something’s Rotten in European Supermarkets

The majority of European supermarkets failed to take adequate responsibility for labour conditions and fair-trade relationships in their food supply chains, a new report revealed.

EAST EUROPE: Organic Farming Blossoms

Eastern Europe's organic food industry is mushrooming as it brushes off the effects of the global recession, and more consumers in the region turn to healthier foods.

UGANDA: NGOs Judging Oil Palm on Hearsay, Says U.N.

Non-governmental organisations (NGOs) are guilty of judging a palm oil project in Uganda on innuendo rather than its merits, the United Nations poverty agency supporting the controversial scheme said, as the project starts to bear fruit for smallholder farmers.

BULGARIA: Inhuman Life Sentences Replace Death Penalty

The death penalty was outlawed in Bulgaria in 1998. But restrictive legislation on conditional release, and the overcrowding and precariousness of the Bulgarian prison system makes life hardly livable for some lifers.

RIGHTS-SWITZERLAND: Calls to End Forced Deportations Follow Custodial Death

Human rights organisations have been demanding an independent inquiry into the death of a Nigerian asylum seeker died while being deported and a stop to all forced repatriations.

DEVELOPMENT: More Food, Except For That Billion Or So

While agricultural research has made massive strides over the years in helping the world produce more food from the same amount of land, around one in six people, the 1.02 billion hungry, have not noticed.

EUROPE: Waste in East Going Waste

Environment groups have warned that Eastern Europe is plagued with serious and potentially dangerous waste disposal problems as new figures reveal the region has Europe's lowest recycling rates.

DEVELOPMENT: EU Playing Aid Politics With Aid Policy

The world's poor appear to have become pawns in a political battle over the European Union's (EU) new diplomatic corps.

BIODIVERSITY-EUROPE: Sturgeons Return to the Danube

A century ago, when the Danube was still blue, it teemed with beluga sturgeon, as did the Rhine with salmon. But industrialisation and the construction of canals and dams have destroyed the habitat of both species of fish.

Q&A: “Impose an Embargo on the EPA Talks”

Respected Ugandan political economist Yash Tandon has added his voice to the call for a moratorium on the negotiations between African countries and the European Union (EU) on the trade deals known as economic partnership agreements (EPAs).

RIGHTS: Not Quite Islamic Executions

The Middle East leads the world in executions after China, says an annual Amnesty International report released Tuesday.

TRADE-SOUTHERN AFRICA: “Reclaim Control over EPA Talks”

Southern African governments must regain control over the negotiations on the trade deals known as economic partnership agreements (EPAs). Issues earmarked as deal-breakers should be resolved before talks to a full EPA are continued. These include limiting the EPA to a goods-only agreement and the EU dropping its demand for reciprocity.

ENVIRONMENT: For Three Dollars More

A high-level meeting in London of political and business leaders will consider this week ways of raising 100 billion dollars to fight climate change. And yet another one in Washington will search for ways of finding, and funding, more three-dollar stoves around the world.

EAST EUROPE: “Inevitable” Budget Cuts Anger Unions

Trade unions in Romania and Bulgaria are embarking on a spring of protests in response to the governments’ anti-crisis measures involving considerable cuts in budget expenditure.