Maldives Sees Islamist Resurgence

Former Maldivian President Mohamed Nasheed expressed concerns Monday about the state of democracy in his home country, noting the dividing effect of a rising tide of Islamist extremism.

China’s One-Child Policy Faces New Challenges

Graphic online photographs of seven month-pregnant Feng Jianmei lying prostrate on a hospital bed next to a bloody foetus have created outrage in China over the brutal enforcement of the controversial one-child-policy. The husband of the woman whose forced late-term abortion caused uproar worldwide has gone missing, according to his family.

Asia Sees Red Over ‘Green Economy’

The just-ended United Nations sustainable development summit in Rio de Janeiro has exposed the discomfort that many developing Asian countries have over buzz words like ‘green economy’ and ‘green growth’ in development diplomacy.

Microfinance Gets ‘Divine’ Intervention in India

In a country with a disastrous record for microfinancing, a religious organisation has done well enough to claim this year’s Ashden award for initiatives in providing loans to poor farmers.

Biofuels and Hunger, Two Sides of the Same Coin

Despite growing evidence that biofuel production is causing food insecurity around the world, the new European Union policy blueprint on renewable energy ignores the social effects of biofuels. Last week, Guatemalan victims of the food crisis came to Brussels to make European policy makers aware of the problem.

No Human Rights – in Theory or Practice

Since the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights on Dec. 10, 1948, in the aftermath of the Second World War, world leaders embarked on a process of ensuring the rights of every individual in the world.

U.S. Drone Strikes Setting Dangerous Global Precedent

U.S. counterterrorism measures are under intense scrutiny from United Nations (U.N.) experts and civil rights groups declaring drone strikes illegal under current frameworks.

Behind Self-Immolations, a Cultural Genocide?

The Chinese government must not “eliminate individualism” but instead encourage diversity of religion, culture and language, the Dalai Lama, the Tibetan spiritual leader, stressed - after yet another Tibetan self-immolated last week in China’s Qinghai province.

Bangladesh on the Green Brick Road

Bangladesh, a country highly vulnerable to climate change, is doing its bit to reduce greenhouse gas (GhG) emissions and glacier-melting soot by switching to ‘smokeless’ brick-making technology.

Biodiesel Brings Cleaner Air

For the past three months, a transport group in the Philippines has been making use of biodiesel processed from used cooking oil for their jeepneys.

Disasters Hold Climate Change Lessons for Thais

The Kiriwong community in southern Thailand is confident of handling climate change, thanks to lessons learned from a natural disaster that hit its village 25 years ago.

Earth Summits Fail Biodiversity in India

Heads of state and governments are meeting in Rio de Janeiro this week to decide how to renew their pledges made during the first Earth Summit held in Rio in 1992.

U.S.: Asians Surpass Hispanics as Fastest-Growing Immigrant Group

Asia has surpassed Latin America as the largest source of new immigrants to the United States, according to a major new report that found that Asian-Americans also enjoy the highest incomes and best education of any racial group in the United States.

Former Militants in Pakistan Hunted Down by Taliban

“I joined the Taliban six years ago but deserted them last year because I felt that they were wrong. Now, the Taliban are chasing me like a shadow. They want to kill me,” said Abdul Ghafoor, 39, who surrendered to the army in northwest Pakistan in August 2011 and vowed to support the government’s peace efforts.

‘Armed Youth’ to Rock Rio

Environmental and community activists from Taiwan will enliven the United Nations Sustainable Development Conference, dubbed Rio+20, and the parallel People’s Summit, with one of the island’s most prominent social protest music groups, the Village Armed Youth Band.

Newborn Deaths Expose India’s Low Health Budget

A year after the Indian government began paying pregnant women to deliver their babies in state-run facilities, the pressure is showing on the country’s understaffed and poorly equipped  hospitals.

Osama’s Shadow Haunts Doctor

Concerns are mounting over the safety of Dr. Shakil Afridi in Peshawar jail. Afridi is alleged to have given information and DNA evidence to the U.S. authorities that led to identification and then the killing of Osama bin Laden.

Where Journalism Is a Battlefront

“It does not matter if we ever find out who killed Saleem; whoever it was has destroyed my family,” says Anita Shahzad, Saleem Shahzad’s 36-year-old widow and mother of three. “It won’t bring him back,” she tells IPS.

Little Optimism for Iran Talks, But Lots of Advice

On the eve of a third round of critical talks between Iran and the so-called P5+1 – the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council plus Germany – on Tehran's nuclear programme, optimism about a breakthrough is hard to come by.

Green Turns Trendy in Indonesia

JAKARTA, Jun 17 (IPS) 2012 - Studies on carbon emissions conducted in the Bogor Agricultural University (BAU) in West Java confirm that the worst culprits are students with their trendy lifestyles.

Back to the Future With Local Rice Seeds

By coaxing a bumper 3.2 tonnes of rice out of each acre on his organic farm in this district famed for its ancient Buddhist monasteries, Charitha Wijeratne has convincingly proved that using indigenous seeds does not affect productivity.