EU: Conditions Faced by Roma People – from Bad to Worse

Roma leaders are alarmed at the growing discrimination faced by their people in Europe, especially because of the anti-gypsy stance taken by many political parties, which blame the ethnic minority group for a wide range of social ills.

Q&A: Busan Beckons With New Promise

For a start, stop calling it "aid", Brian Atwood, chair of the Development Assistance Committee at the OECD, tells IPS.

SPAIN: Socialist Defeat Could Give Rise to a New Left

The crushing defeat suffered by Spain's governing socialist party may pave the way for the emergence of a new alterative left capable of standing up to the centre-right People's Party (PP), which won a landslide victory in Sunday's elections.

Corporal Punishment Leaves Too Many Scars

Thousands of people are being left physically and psychologically scarred as countries around the world continue to breach international law in handing out brutal but "ineffective" corporal punishment for drug offences, it has been claimed.

KYRGYZSTAN: Bishkek Struggling to Find Right Economic Path

In a small office on the second floor of the Kyrgyzstan Stock Exchange, a lone administrator checked the time and looked up from the computer: "Two o'clock. No applications received. Auction for sale of Zalkar Bank is declared invalid."

DEVELOPMENT: New Aid Model Expected at Busan

A new model of making development assistance more successful is expected to emerge at the Fourth High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness (HLF-4), to be held Nov. 29 - Dec. 1 in Busan, Korea.

Microfinance Works – For the Rich

Jesús Guerra, a volunteer at this week’s Fifth Global Microcredit Summit in this Spanish town, was nonplussed by the expensive gold watch sported by a banker from a developing country.

CENTRAL ASIA: Together They Lose

Rarely have so many donor countries spent so much for so long to achieve so little. In fact, the scores of Western countries ranging from the Netherlands to the United States that have tried for 20 years to coax the Central Asian nations to use their water cooperatively and create a win-win situation for all have found that the Central Asians are cooperating less and less, not more and more.

African Sun Prepares to Power Europe

Solar thermal power plants are indispensable to meet Europe’s energy demands and to reduce greenhouse gases emissions substantially, according to a new study by a European scientific commission.

/CORRECTION/*Italy’s New Cabinet – Politics without Politicians*

Of the 17 ministers nominated Wednesday by Italy's premier-designate Mario Monti, not one is a politician.

Microcredit – Women Demand More Than Incomes

Microcredit can help a woman to have an income. It can, for better or worse, also transform gender equations in the public and private spheres.

‘Microcredit is No Magic Wand Against Poverty’

While microcredit remains the best tool available to address poverty it is no magic wand and can only be a part of the larger development process, say experts gathered in this historic Spanish city.

ECONOMY-PORTUGAL: Side Effects of IMF Medicine

A European Union economic forecast for 2012 indicates Portugal is the EU country that will grow the least.

TAJIKISTAN: Dushanbe’s Plane Caper Not Flying with the Kremlin

Memo to leaders of Central Asian nations that lack abundant energy resources: messing with Moscow usually backfires.

DEVELOPMENT: UNESCO Turns On the Radio

The demise of radio has been predicted for many years, but the medium is adapting, transforming and proving to be a cost-effective tool in development, experts say.

DEVELOPMENT: Showcasing Solidarity

How does a freezer purchased with a microloan change the life of a poor woman in Senegal? What are the Study Solidarity Olympics? How many lives can an ambulance equipped to attend births save in Ethiopia?

G20 Remiss in Tackling Food Security

Last Friday Benoit Miribel, President of Action Against Hunger, delivered a strong indictment of the outcome of the Group of 20 (G20) summit in the south of France: "The G20 meeting in Cannes has been a missed opportunity."

Papademos Named Greek Prime Minister

Greek party leaders have agreed to name Lucas Papademos, a former European Central Bank vice-president, as prime minister of a new interim government until early elections, the president's office said.

EU Backs Timoshenko, More Than Ukrainians

The imprisonment of former prime minister Yuliya Timoshenko has raised questions about Ukraine’s democratic credentials. But these questions are mostly being raised abroad.

U.S. Move Hurts More Than UNESCO

The United States’ decision to cut funding for the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation will hurt the specialised agency’s work, officials here say.

China Looks at Life After Euro

If Chinese detractors of liberal democracy and unbridled market development ever needed more fodder for their attacks on the West, then last week's Greek farce provided plenty. But behind the headlines announcing "the collapse of Europe" there is little sense of ideological triumph. Instead Beijing is busy drawing up contingency pans for the break up of the eurozone and absorbing the lessons of welfare state excesses.