POLITICS-AFRICA: Mixed Reviews From Civil Society

Civil society organisations (CSOs) have mixed feelings about the outcomes of the latest African Union Summit, which concluded in the Egyptian resort of Sharm El Sheikh earlier this week. The summit meeting of African heads of state and officials was largely dominated by debate – or lack thereof – over the crisis in Zimbabwe and the participation of the controversial president, Robert Mugabe.

G8: 'Investment In Health Is Effective Aid'

Japan wants next week's summit of seven major western industrial nations and Russia (G8) to urge the international community to push towards combating HIV/AIDS. It sees this as a critical objective of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) that are meant to be achieved by 2015.

MIDEAST: Sewage in Water Threatens Gazans

Gaza is being forced to pump 77 tonnes of untreated or partially treated sewage out to sea daily due to the Israeli blockade of the coastal territory. The fear is that some of this is creeping back into drinking water.

HEALTH-SOUTH AFRICA: Refugees Denied Access to Health Care

Refugees and migrants do not have adequate access to health care services in South Africa, aid organisations and NGOs say. This is particularly detrimental for those who are HIV-positive and in need of continuous antiretroviral (ARV) medication: interrupted treatment can mean illness, development of drug-resistance and ultimately death.

CHINA: ‘Within a Generation Beijing Will Cease to Exist’

Few in the Chinese capital are aware of the price their city would pay for staging the world’s first ‘green Olympics’ in August. The fabulous capital of Chinese emperors and the epitome of modern China’s ambitions is being driven to extinction by its chronic lack of water. And the Olympic games are expediting the city’s slow demise, according to experts.

SOMALIA: Fighting for an Education

"I like to study, even though there is fighting everywhere in Mogadishu," says Bashir Gedi, a 15-year-old student in the Somalian capital. "Education is more important for me because if I can get an education, then I can help rebuild my country."

ZIMBABWE: Tobacco Sector Up in Smoke as State Violence Escalates

The perennial political and economic crisis in Zimbabwe has wreaked havoc with the country’s once thriving tobacco industry.

HEALTH-SOUTH AFRICA: Bleak Future For the Country's Water

Earlier this month, a private pilot reported to a Johannesburg radio station that while flying over the Kruger National Park, in the far eastern reaches of the country, he had spotted the carcasses of several large crocodiles floating in the Olifants River. This was unusual because the crocodiles within the country's largest game reserve are protected from hunting.

AFRICA: Artists Reflect on World Through Toys With A Difference

It’s not child’s play to showcase ‘‘toys’’ made by artists reflecting on a changing world in African countries. Miniature construction vehicles from Malawi, next to a diminutive Nelson Mandela presiding over South Africa’s first democratic parliament, jostle for space with the Belgian comic hero Tintin on safari in the Congo – all captured in carefully crafted wood.

Q&A: 'Monitor Aid Delivery Against Pledges'

The European Union commitment to stepping up development aid is expected to be put to the test at the G8 summit in Hokkaido in Japan next month.

HEALTH-MALAWI: Water Woes in Model Hospital

Gladys Mawera's face is contorted with pain -– both she and her newborn baby survived a complicated birth three days ago - but she has not been able to take the painkillers and antibiotics prescribed to her by the medical personnel at the Chiradzulu District Hospital in southern Malawi. The hospital has been without water for five days.

FINANCE-US: More Debt Relief in Sight for Poorest Nations

Anti-debt campaigners say legislation passed by a U.S. Congressional committee this week that would expand debt cancellations to an additional 25 poor nations could prove effective in fighting poverty, stopping environmental degradation and easing the traditional strict economic conditions that accompanied loans and often led to economic chaos.

Q&A: Is Democracy Dangerous in Multi-ethnic Societies?

The Centre for Research on Inequality, Human Security and Ethnicity (CRISE) would seem to have its work cut out for it in a world racked by brutal and enduring conflict. The centre's goal is to explore the links between ethnicity, inequality and conflict in order to identify policies that could lead to more inclusive multi-ethnic societies.

HEALTH-PARAGUAY: Hospitals on the Critical List

Paraguay’s public hospitals are on the verge of collapse, due to a lack of resources for responding to the wave of southern hemisphere winter illnesses. The first measure to be adopted by the new government that will take over in August will be to declare a "social emergency" in healthcare, the future health minister told IPS.

DEVELOPMENT-EU: Saving Agriculture From Climate Change

Climate change will top the agenda of an international food conference on Europe that begins Thursday in Innsbruck, Austria.

CLIMATE CHANGE: U.S. Intelligence Cites Litany of Dangers

While the United States is relatively well placed to cope with the likely consequences of global warming over the next 20 years, many developing countries, especially in Africa, South, Central and East Asia, and Central America, could suffer serious problems, particularly related to water scarcity and migration, according to testimony here Wednesday by a top U.S. intelligence officer.

DEVELOPMENT-GHANA: No Place to Lay Their Heads

Agbogbloshie Market is a vibrant market in the heart of Accra, Ghana's capital, where one can buy almost anything. But the market is also the stage for a sad tale of many who gain nothing from the commercial bustle: hundreds of young girls from the northern part of the country who work as porters in Accra's markets.

CORRUPTION: Graft Sapping Precious Water Resources

The world's growing water crisis - with nearly 1.2 billion people lacking a steady water supply and more than 2.6 billion without adequate sanitation - is fundamentally a crisis of governance, with corruption as one root cause, says a new report by Transparency International.

CLIMATE CHANGE: 100-Percent Renewables Not a Pipe Dream

North America's abject failure to meet the challenge of climate change has been "un-American", environmentalist and scientist David Suzuki told delegates Tuesday at the World Wind Energy Conference, the first ever in the region.

DEVELOPMENT: 'Aid From New EU Members Disregards Women'

Foreign aid budgets administered by the European Union's most recent entrants do not pay sufficient heed to the needs of women in poor countries, a series of new studies has found.

DEVELOPMENT: Mobile Phones Soar in Internet-Starved Africa

The beleaguered African continent continues to lag far behind the rest of the world in battling poverty, hunger and HIV/AIDS, but it is making dramatic progress in the field of information and communications technologies (ICTs).