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RIGHTS: Deepening Inequality Threatens World Security – UN Report

Social, economic and human rights in the South are being undermined by the growing power of the global marketplace, and the eroding ability of national governments to protect citizens from market fluctuations, according to a new analysis from the United Nations University (UNU).

DEVELOPMENT: World Hunger Diminishes, Rises Again

By Jim Lobe

After falling during the first half of the 1990s, the number of hungry people in the world, particularly in developing countries, is once again on the rise, say latest estimates by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO).

JAPAN: Security Priorities Get Chunk of Shrinking Aid Pie

By Suvendrini Kakuchi

Cuts and a heavy focus on Iraq's reconstruction in Japan's aid budget - the country's most important diplomatic tool - is a clear signal of a strategy that puts national interests over poverty eradication, say analysts here.

POPULATION: Annan Calls for U.N. Migration Agency

By IPS Correspondents

A single global agency should be created to deal with the wide range of issues surrounding the increasingly important migration phenomenon, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said Friday.

EUROPE: ‘Stop Complaining, Start Planning’

By Julio Godoy

Proposals for a better world must replace protests against present ways, the European Social Forum concluded over the weekend.

DEVELOPMENT-AFRICA: Four Road Maps for the Continent’s Future

By IPS Correspondents

A ground-breaking study by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has sought to predict what life in Africa could be like by 2025.

EUROPE: Social Forum Seeks Alternative to Globalisation

By Julio Godoy

The European Social Forum opening in Paris Wednesday will look for an economic model that could become an alternative to capital-led globalisation.

DEVELOPMENT: Rich Nations Fail Aid Pledge to Poor

By Thalif Deen

When more than 50 world political leaders and finance ministers from rich nations gathered in Mexico in March last year, they solemnly pledged to substantially increase their official development assistance (ODA) to the world's poorer nations.

MEXICO-U.S.: The Mirage of a Migration Accord

By IPS Correspondents

The Mexican government boasted two years ago of having taken the initiative in negotiating with the United States a broad-based migration agreement, covering issues ranging from human rights to work passes and residency - but so far has nothing to show for it.

DEVELOPMENT: Commonwealth Gives Growth a Democratic Push

By Sanjay Suri

The Commonwealth plans to make development and democracy a special theme at a meeting of heads of government in Abuja in Nigeria next month.

POLITICS-SOUTH ASIA: Go Beyond Diplomatese, Peace Activists Say

By Ranjit Devraj

It comes as no surprise that India's latest peace offensive on Pakistan has become bogged down over the disputed territory of Kashmir, but experts say it is important to see beyond the diplomatese and doggedly pursue dialogue in the interest of peace on the subcontinent.

POLITICS: U.S. Set to Block World Bank Aid to Iran

By Emad Mekay

U.S. officials have vowed to continue to fight World Bank assistance for Iran in a bid to derail funding for the country's alleged nuclear weapons programme and to penalise Tehran for its confrontational policies towards the United States and Israel.

POLITICS-U.S.: Senate Blocks Military Aid to Indonesia

By Jim Lobe

U.S. military training to the Indonesian Armed Forces will be banned until its officials cooperate with investigators probing the ambush and killing of staff from an international school in West Papua province last year, according to amendments passed by the Senate.

DEVELOPMENT-JAPAN: Slowly, Space for Activism Grows

By Suvendrini Kakuchi

Disillusioned with his job in the sales department of a construction company, 29-year-old Taro Nishimura quit to travel to India for a year, and is now a volunteer for a non-profit organisation working with the visually disabled here in the Japanese capital.

LATIN AMERICA: The EU’s Ever-Shrinking Foreign Aid

By Diana Cariboni

Latin America, the region with the biggest rich-poor gap, is drawing an ever-shrinking portion of foreign aid, and European aid in particular.

CUBA-EU: Relations at Rock Bottom

By Patricia Grogg

Although relations between Cuba and the European Union (EU) are in crisis, the European bloc is still willing to engage in political dialogue and discuss aid and cooperation, said the EU business attaché in this Caribbean island nation, Sven Kühn von Burgsdorff.

THAILAND: For APEC Summit, Gov’t Wants Bangkok Smelling Like Roses

By Marwaan Macan-Markar

When leaders from 21 Asia-Pacific economies arrive in Bangkok for an economic summit in mid-October, they will be denied a close encounter with daily scenes of life in this country, ranging from democracy to the sex industry.

DEVELOPMENT: Summit Zeroes in on Keeping World Attention on Africa

By Suvendrini Kakuchi

Against a backdrop of donor fatigue and a deadlock on trade between rich and poor countries, African leaders at a summit here renewed a pledge to keep the world's attention on a continent that is grappling with wars and famine, but also faces new opportunities ahead.