ECONOMY: From the IMF and World Bank, Visions of Gloom

The United States will fall into recession this year, dragging down global economic performance for the next two years, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said on Wednesday.

DEVELOPMENT-EU: Declining Level of Aid 'Dangerous'

European Commission President José Manuel Barroso has described declining levels of development assistance from rich to poor countries as "dangerous".

CLIMATE CHANGE: Will Societies Bend, or Snap in the Storm?

A new risk-analysis of the negative consequences of climate change warns of potential "devastation and violence (worldwide) jeopardising national and international security to a new degree."

Q&A: "A Collective Ignorance About How Agriculture Interacts With Natural Systems"

Representatives from countries, civil society and the private sector are meeting this week in Johannesburg, South Africa, to review the findings of the three-year International Assessment of Agricultural Science and Technology for Development (IAASTD).

HEALTH-TANZANIA: Slowly, a More Enlightened Approach to Drug Addiction

If the first step to overcoming drug addiction is admitting you have a problem, then Tanzania may be on the road to recovery.

WORLD HEALTH DAY: Climate Change a Challenge to Human Species

World Health Day, celebrated Apr. 7, is a good opportunity to "call attention to the fact that the survival of humanity is at stake" because of climate change, according to Mirta Roses, director of the Pan-American Health Organisation.

DEVELOPMENT-UGANDA: Smaller Families, Manlier Men

For Ugandan men, the equation is often a simple one: an abundance of children equals virility and security. This deeply rooted belief has frightening implications, however. According to the Uganda Bureau of Statistics, the population of the East African country - now 31 million - will exceed 36 million by 2015, and is projected to reach 54 million in 2025.

DEVELOPMENT: Towards a New and Improved Green Revolution

As food prices soar and hundreds of millions go hungry, experts from around the world will this week present a new approach for ensuring food security, at the intergovernmental plenary for the International Assessment of Agricultural Science and Technology for Development (IAASTD). The Apr. 7-12 conference is taking place in South Africa's commercial hub, Johannesburg, and will be attended by representatives of an estimated 60 governments.

CLIMATE CHANGE: A Game With Too Many Free Riders

The evidence is piling up that climate change threatens to bring a chaotic future unlike anything ever known. Taking collective action in time to avert the worst means rewarding climate-safe behaviour, punishing climate transgressors and publicly praising those who are trying to protect the environment, a new study suggests.

RIGHTS-CAMBODIA: Property Boom Forces Evictions of Urban Poor

Sitting in a wooden house in the urban poor community of Dei Krohome, Touch Ratha recounted a tale of intimidation, secrecy and the blurred line between police, government officials and the private company that she says has been trying to evict her and her neighbours.

HEALTH: U.N. Aims For an AIDS-Free Generation

The United Nations is intensifying its worldwide efforts to help create a new generation of children who will be born free of HIV/AIDS, a disease that has particularly devastated parts of sub-Saharan Africa.

CLIMATE CHANGE: A Vision Worth Fighting For

Sweeping societal change is a slow and erratic business. The civil rights movement in the United States went nowhere for decades and then exploded in the 1960s. Not long ago, smokers could light up anywhere they pleased in Canada and the U.S. Now they are mostly confined to a few outdoor areas and as a consequence, far fewer people smoke.

RIGHTS: A Fifth of EU Children in Poverty

Minimum levels of expenditure on addressing the causes of child poverty should be introduced across the European Union, according to a parliamentarian tasked with analysing the problem.

DEVELOPMENT: U.N. Poverty Goals Face New Threats

The U.N.'s Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), aimed primarily at reducing poverty, hunger, disease and illiteracy, are being undermined by a rash of new problems threatening to cripple the ongoing efforts by developing nations to reach their targets by 2015.

CLIMATE CHANGE: The Fault Lies Not in Our Cars but in Ourselves

Rising levels of carbon dioxide (CO2) in Earth's atmosphere can be compared to a flooding river, swamping low areas at first but inevitably bursting its banks.

BOSNIA: To the Future, With the Past Following

Close to 15 years after the siege of Sarajevo began, the city has recovered much of its past prosperity. But the wounds and memories of war are still around.

PAKISTAN: Putting Development Back on the Agenda

Pakistan’s new prime minister has announced what many term a ‘revolutionary’ agenda: continue the ‘war on terror’ but on Pakistan’s terms, lift the long standing ban on student and trade unions, raise minimum wages, revoke ‘black’ media laws, provide relief for farmers and observe austerity.

ASIA: Rising Rice Prices Threaten Aid Programmes

Rising rice prices are threatening to derail aid programmes run by international agencies while several governments on the continent are taking steps to see that shortages of the staple do not translate into social unrest and food riots.

EDUCATION-SOUTH AFRICA: Making the Blackboard Jungle Less So

Violence in South African schools has claimed the lives of a number of children in recent years, while many more have been hospitalised with injuries.

CLIMATE CHANGE: The Future Is Now

Our fingers are glued to the global thermostat, pushing it ever higher, and climate catastrophe has already begun to reshape human civilisation.

NICARAGUA: Houses Without Water or Water Without Houses?

Authorities in Nicaragua are facing the dilemma of generating thousands of jobs through the development of the construction and real estate industry in the capital or putting a priority on future water supplies for the city’s 1.2 million people.