GUYANA: Govt Complicity With Drug Ring Aired in New York

This small English-speaking nation, home to the Caribbean trade bloc (CARICOM), has been in the news recently due to allegations in a New York court that the government here willingly and knowingly gave surveillance equipment to a private death squad so that it could hunt down and execute more than 200 criminal suspects and opposition activists it wanted off the scene - as far back as 2002.

INDIA: With Nuke Submarine Launch, India Displays its Growing Military Prowess

With the launch of an indigenously made nuclear-powered submarine, India has caused an international uproar. But back home, observers played it down as nothing more than a long-term naval enhancement in a peninsula country with a long coastline.

POLITICS: How Far Should U.N. Go to Protect Civilians?

In what one U.N. official characterised as "a historical development", the General Assembly spent much of this week debating the principle of the Responsibility to Protect (R2P), which calls for the international community to intervene with diplomatic and, if necessary, military action, in cases of genocide, ethnic cleansing, war crimes, and crimes against humanity.

POLITICS: U.N. to Live or Die by Its Policy Ideas

The United Nations has long been described - rather contemptuously - as one of the world's biggest talking shops.

SRI LANKA: Clinching a Crucial IMF Lifeline

After months of being at the receiving end of international criticism for human rights violations, Sri Lanka finally clinched a crucial agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Tuesday for a standby credit facility of $2.5 billion, which will help bolster the country’s foreign exchange reserves depleted by the sharp impacts of the global economic downturn and an expensive war.

INDIA/PAKISTAN: A Fresh Approach to Peace

If the leaders of India and Pakistan were looking for out-of-the-box solutions to their long-standing dispute over Kashmir and the related issue of cross-border terrorism, they could hardly have done better than the joint statement they released this week after their meeting at the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.

DISARMAMENT: Inching Toward a Global Arms Treaty

The United Nations concluded an open-ended working group for an international Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) Thursday, part of a lengthy and politically contentious process to nail down a basic framework for curbing deadly illegal weapons sales.

U.S.: Clinton Seeks “Multi-Partner World”, Warns Iran on Time

In her first comprehensive policy address since becoming secretary of state nearly six months ago, Hillary Clinton Wednesday called for a "multi-partner'' - as opposed to a "multi-polar" - world" and defended President Barack Obama's policy of engagement with adversaries, including Iran.

MEXICO: Int’l AIDS Funds Necessary but Not Sufficient

For the first time, Mexico is eligible for a grant from the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. But even if its application is successful, resources for HIV/AIDS prevention among high-risk sectors of the population will fall short.

US-MEXICO: Rights Group Urges Review of Aid in Light of Abuses

The U.S. State Department should not certify Mexico's compliance with the Merida Initiative's human rights requirements so long as the Mexican army continues to commit human rights abuses without proper investigation and punishment, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, released Monday.

G8: Some Aid Can be Hard to Stomach

As numbers go, and as expectations went, 20 billion dollars would be a fair bit for the G8 to produce to fight the food crisis and bring down hunger. Certainly, it was more than most expected.

MEXICO: X-Ray of Civil Society

What kinds of work do Mexico's civil society organisations do? How are they structured? Where do they obtain their financing? These are some of the questions that a new edition of the CIVICUS Civil Society Index (CSI) will attempt to answer.

POLITICS-INDIA: Waiting to Hear Clinton on AfPak, China

It is hard to say whether U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will find herself being quizzed more on Washington's 'AfPak' strategy to contain global terror or her appeasement of a financially muscular China, when she lands in India mid-July.

CARIBBEAN: Caricom Family Wooed by South American Cousins

The suspicions of several Caribbean leaders about Venezuela’s growing political and economic clout in the region boiled over last week as they met for their four-day annual summit in Guyana.

RIGHTS-MALAYSIA: An Uphill Battle Against Abuse And Torture

Domestic helper Siti Hajar, 33, from Garut district, Indonesia is a picture of calm as she leans against the wall at a shelter for abused maids and dreams of returning to her village.

AUSTRALIA: Attacks Expose Ills Of A Much-Touted Education System

The modern façade of its cities, cost-effectiveness and its high standards of education make Australia an attractive destination for foreign students. But the recent spate of attacks on Indian students has exposed the many ills afflicting the Australian education system, threatening its lucrative markets.

CARIBBEAN: Deportation Row Takes Centre-Stage at Caricom

Caribbean leaders are due to meet for a full working week starting Thursday to discuss issues ranging from climate change to the global economic crisis.

CLIMATE CHANGE: 2020 Deadline Is the Crucial “Litmus Test”

"So who here thinks there will be a meaningful deal in Copenhagen?" Few of the more than 600 energy ministers, officials and experts from 80 countries attending the Vienna Energy Conference raised their hands in response to the conference moderator's question about the final round of climate negotiations this December in Copenhagen.

SOUTHEAST ASIA: Regional Rights Body Dismissed as “Toothless”

Southeast Asia is weeks away from getting its own regional human rights body, but not everyone is cheering the birth of this new mechanism due to be approved at a foreign ministers’ meeting here. Least of all the region’s vibrant human rights community, spread across the 10 countries that belong to the Association of South-east Asian Nations (ASEAN).

DEVELOPMENT: Green Energy for All by 2030?

While industrialised countries struggle to switch from climate-damaging, carbon-based energy to greener energy sources, much of the world is desperately energy poor, with 1.6 billion people having no access to electricity and 2.4 billion relying on wood and dung for heat and cooking.

INDIA: Opposition to ‘Nuclearism’ Builds Up

As India follows up on the historic civilian nuclear agreement it signed last year with the United States by drawing up hard commercial deals, opposition to ‘nuclearism’ is building up among activist groups.