INDIA: Landless Plan a Long March

The Gandhian movement Ekta Parishad plans to organise a march for land rights in October 2012 in India, aiming to gather around 100,000 indigenous people, dalits and poor peasants. Support is shaping up around the world, at events such as an international mobilisation conference in Geneva Sep. 12-13.

DEVELOPMENT: EU Steps Towards Common Aid

The European Commission has decided to push for more ambitious reforms ahead of the aid effectiveness summit to be held in Busan later this year. The European Commission, the executive arm of the European Union, is looking for a common EU position that could save the EU 4 billion euros which can be spent on additional aid.

Washington Warned Against Lifting Aid Curbs

As a high-ranking Uzbek delegation wound up talks with senior U.S. officials here Wednesday, human rights groups urged the administration of President Barack Obama not to lift seven- year-old restrictions on Washington's aid to Tashkent in exchange for a new agreement on using Uzbek territory to transport "non-lethal" supplies to and from Afghanistan.

LIBYA: Jihadists Take Over, As Warned

The official euphoria with which the U.S. and European governments celebrated the fall of the regime of Muammar Gaddafi in Libya has given way to growing concern that many among the new Libyan leadership are radical Muslims with links to al-Qaeda. Revelations are surfacing also of a close collaboration of Western governments with the deposed dictator.

U.S., EU Sign Pact to Combat Fishing “Piracy” on High Seas

Fisheries representatives from two of the world's four largest fish consumer markets, Europe and the U.S., signed an agreement here Wednesday pledging to combat illegal fishing on the high seas.

DEVELOPMENT: ‘Boomerang Aid Enriches Donors’

Development aid is ineffective mostly because it is tied to contracts worth billions of dollars awarded to firms in developed countries in a phenomenon called boomerang aid, a new study says.

Despite Exploding Volcanoes, Iceland World’s Most Peaceful Nation

When Johanna Sigurdardottir was sworn in as Iceland's head of government back in February 2009, she was described as the world's first openly gay prime minister.

KOSOVO: EU Cornered by UN Jurisdiction – Part 2

European investigators had a hard time dealing with cases of misuse of European Union funds in Kosovo due to the complex bureaucracy that regulated the relationship between the EU and the United Nations administration, which was the only official international decision-making authority in the former Serbian province.

KOSOVO: Probes into Misuse of EU Money Stall – Part 1

This year the European Union plans to spend an additional 70 million euros to help Kosovo work its way towards the goal of becoming a member state. But it has no plan to dig further into the alleged misuse of European taxpayers' money that has been unresolved for the last 10 years.

Flotilla Report Leaks, Turkey Expels Israeli Ambassador

A highly anticipated and controversial report on Israel's May 2010 interception of an aid flotilla bound for the Gaza Strip and subsequent killing of nine civilians and wounding of many others was finally leaked on Thursday, as diplomatic relations between Israel and Turkey continued to deteriorate.

WikiLeaks Blames Guardian Newspaper for Leaks

WikiLeaks, the whistleblowing website, has said that its massive archive of unredacted U.S. State Department cables was exposed in a security breach, which it blamed on its one-time partner - Britain's Guardian newspaper.

‘EU Needs to Tell Itself More About Development’

There is increasing political will now for a globalised strategy for the European Union to raise awareness about development, experts say. But at the same time, the European budget for education on development issues remains strikingly low.

TRADE-NAMIBIA: No Progress on Access to European Markets

Weariness surrounds the negotiations on an Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) regulating trade access between Southern Africa and the European Union (EU).

EUROPE: Some Rich Want to Get a Little Less Rich

In the face of the severe sovereign debt crisis in most industrialised countries, some extremely rich people are urging governments to increase taxes on wealth.

Aiming a Kick at Homelessness

Loud bursts of cheering startled the throngs of tourists posing for pictures in front of the Eiffel Tower here last weekend.

Global Warming Behind Somali Drought

The severe drought in the Horn of Africa, which has caused the death of at least 30,000 children and is affecting some 12 million people, especially in Somalia, is a direct consequence of weather phenomena associated with climate change and global warming, environmental scientists say.

PORTUGAL: Young Professionals Flee Crisis – to Former Colonies

Thousands of young people from Portugal are joining an emigration flow that never trickled to a stop but is turning into an exodus now due to the severe economic crisis plaguing this southern European country. And the main destinations of those looking for a better future abroad are former colonies, especially Brazil.

Eurozone Crisis Could Spill Over into Developing World

When the global economy was hit by a severe recession in 2008- 2009, the negative fallout impacted heavily on the world's developing nations, hindering the U.N.'s key development goals, including plans for the elimination of extreme poverty and hunger worldwide by 2015.

EUROPE: ‘Rethink Rhetoric Against Islam’

Conservative governments and centre-right parties in Europe were attacking multiculturalism and denigrating Muslim immigrants long before Norwegian right-wing extremist Anders Behring Breivik used similar arguments to justify mass killings in Oslo and Utoya Island.

BALKANS: Prison Literature Blossoms

A new literary trend is gaining momentum in Serbia. It revolves around a phenomenon sociologists are describing as "prison literature".

Dutch Court Opens Door to Legal Accountability for Peacekeepers

A landmark ruling by a Dutch court last month holding the Netherlands government liable for the failings of its soldiers on a U.N. peacekeeping mission may be used as a precedent for criminal liability involving sexual violence, according to human rights groups.