CLIMATE CHANGE: Angry Greenhouse Gas Victims Demand Action

‘Angry’ is not the adjective that comes to mind when you first meet Nelly Damaris Chepkoskei.

CLIMATE CHANGE: China’s Carbon Commitment—Low But Sure

China and the United States are wrestling to claim leadership during the upcoming climate change talks in Copenhagen, unveiling proposals to cut greenhouse gases one after the other this week and setting the stage for some tough negotiations. But gauntlets thrown, both face challenges in achieving their pledged targets.

SRI LANKA: The Long Road to Normalcy in War-Ravaged Zones

Despite the recent accelerated return of tens of thousands of war-displaced civilians to their former villages in northern Sri Lanka and the impending relaxation of further restrictions, aid agencies say far more efforts are needed to help the civilian population regain normalcy lost to decades of conflict.

INDIA: Indo-U.S. Nuclear Deal on Track, But Kinks Remain

As Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh wound down his state visit to the United States, Indian analysts say a major achievement has been ensuring that the civilian nuclear agreement between the two countries is on track.

ASIA: Civil Society Steps Up Efforts Towards Alternative Economy

Amid worsening poverty, income inequality and a host of environmental hazards that are afflicting many countries, what does the world need today?

Q&A: Wanted: Economy at the Service of Mankind

The outbreak of the global financial crisis that followed the collapse of the U.S.'s major financial institutions last year sent many economies into a downward spiral. Many were also forced to rethink their economic development models.

SPECIAL OP-ED: People First, Turning Words Into Action

The promotion of women's rights at the global level should not be limited to treating the female population as a gender that is discriminated against and must be protected.

PERU: Fighting Hunger with Native Crops

As if he were showing off a treasure, Dionicio Sarmiento holds up his seed potatoes with a smile. "Look how nice they are, all ready to plant. It'll be a good harvest," says the peasant farmer from Huancavelica, Peru's poorest province, where most of the population depends on subsistence farming.

SOUTH ASIA: The Ties that Bind: Artists, Writers Forge Peace

Imagine writers, scholars and folk performers from eight South Asian countries coming together to share their common heritage and culture while promoting peace and harmony at the same time.

JAPAN: Obama Visit Hailed, But Left Crucial Questions Unanswered

Setting foot on the Land of Cherry Blossom over the weekend, U.S. President Barack Obama waxed nostalgic, recalling his first visit to Japan as a young boy, when his mother brought him there.

CHINA: Simmering Issues Boiling Up in Run-up to Obama Visit

His victory speech is a smash hit on Internet sites; his image vies for popularity with those of communist China’s founding father Mao Zedong, and his book is a runway bestseller in this country’s big cities. But as China prepares to welcome him as the first black president of the United States, keen anticipation is mixed with unease.

AUSTRALIA/SRI LANKA: Untangling the Knotty Issue of Human Smuggling

It is a story that spans three islands, across the breadth of the Indian Ocean. That is, of hundreds of boat people sailing the rough seas in unseaworthy vessels, risking life and limb in their desperate attempt at a new lease of life.

VIETNAM: Human Rights, Health: Twin Issues for Climate Change

Vietnam will be one of five nations most affected by climate change. Worst-case scenarios see large parts of the low-lying and flood-prone Mekong Delta area, which produces much of the nation’s rice crop, flooded.

INDIA/CHINA: Dalai Lama’s Border State Visit: Purely Spiritual?

It is hard to say whether the Dalai Lama’s sojourn this week in India’s Arunachal Pradesh state—which China claims as southern Tibet—is a purely spiritual exercise or a trip with a deep political mission.

Q&A: No ‘One-Size-Fits-All’ for Surging South-South Cooperation

A major international conference on South-South cooperation is scheduled to take place early December in the Kenyan capital of Nairobi against the backdrop of a rising trend in regional economic integration in Asia, Africa, the Middle East and Latin America.

ENVIRONMENT: ‘Temperature Rise Guaranteed, Thanks to Brown Clouds’

Regardless of success at the upcoming climate talks at Copenhagen this December, there will still be a 2.5 degree rise in temperatures.

MEXICO: Women Package the Sweet Taste of Nostalgia

Years ago, when Catalina Sánchez saw an opportunity to earn an income and improve her family’s living conditions by growing and selling nopales - an edible cactus native to Mexico - she probably never imagined that her idea would spawn three businesses.

Q&A: ‘ODA Is What Governments Want to Do at Their Whim’

Think of a world where rich nations did not fund what was popular but instead collaborated to solve the developing world’s most pressing health needs.

GUATEMALA: (Barely) Surviving on Beans and Tortillas

Juan Manuel Ardón's bones jut out and his hair is dull and thin: signs of severe malnutrition. He is so weak that he can hardly walk or talk, and the doctors say his weight and stature are those of a six-year-old, rather than 15-year-old, boy.

US-EUROPE: An Ocean Apart in More Ways Than One

As a delegation of European Union leaders descends on Washington Tuesday, a new report argues that "European governments prefer to fetishise transatlantic relations, valuing closeness and harmony as ends in themselves, and seeking influence with Washington through various strategies of seduction or ingratiation".

RIGHTS: Rising China Poses Danger to Peace, Say Nobel Laureates

An ascendant China that ignores human rights in Tibet and Xinjiang, poses a danger to world peace, say Nobel laureates Mairead Corrigan Maguire and Jody Williams.