ENVIRONMENT-PERU: A (Toxic) River Runs Through It

The Mantaro river basin, one of the main water sources in Peru’s central Andes mountains, is a dump for toxic substances, according to an independent scientific study. Lead levels, for instance, are 180 times higher than those accepted by the World Health Organisation (WHO).

Q&A: 'Out-of-the-Box Solutions Needed to Solve World's Sanitation Problems'

Born in a lavatory, South Korean legislator Sim Jae-Duck prefers to be addressed as ‘Mr. Toilet’ and hopes to die in one too. He moved into a home shaped like a giant toilet bowl in time for the launch, in Seoul, of the World Toilet Association (WTA) general assembly from Nov. 21-25.

HEALTH: U.N. Highlights Global Sanitation Disaster

The world's sanitation crisis, caused primarily by the lack of toilet facilities for over 2.6 billion people, is "an insult to humanity", says the Geneva-based Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council.

Q&A: “If It Is Globalisation, It Must Be Everybody’s”

The "war on terror" is not everybody's language, nor for that matter is "globalisation", says Nobel Prize laureate Amartya Sen. Nor is anyone right to think that religious radicalism is really an Islamic problem, he says.

TRADE-MALAWI: Coffee Industry Gets Brewing Again

Malawi’s coffee producers have come up with innovative plans to kick start the country’s sluggish coffee industry, including the marketing of specialty blends which are uniquely Malawian.

TRADE: Mandelson Attacks South Africa and Nigeria Over EPAs

Africa’s largest nations are trying to block the signing of the economic partnership agreements (EPAs) with the European Union (EU), Peter Mandelson, EU trade commissioner, claimed today.

Q&A: "The Presence of Women in Local Councils Is in Itself a Revolution"

As local elections in Benin draw closer, activists are pushing ahead with efforts to have more women voted into local government. Just 45 of the 1,189 councilors currently in office are women.

CUBA: Sails of Popular Education Catch Winds of Socialist Change

The growing role of popular education in local experiences of social change is spurring debate about the need for more active participation by the people of Cuba in the social transformations that are inevitable if it is to remain a socialist country.

Q&A: “Decisive Action Must Emerge From Bali Climate Change Conference”

The United Nations' new Human Development Report will point to rich nations' responsibility in fighting climate change that threatens to usher in large-scale, irreversible changes in human development, says Kevin Watkins, lead author of the report.

TRADE-EAST AFRICA: Officials Confused About Pros and Cons of EPA

The news that the ministers of the East African Community (Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda and Burundi) are on the verge of signing an economic partnership agreement with the European Union (EU) has been received with mixed reactions by government officials from these very same countries.

CUBA: Popular Education Transforms Women’s Lives

"I have the spirit of a 15-year-old girl, and the wisdom of a 66-year-old woman," says Felicia Pérez, who recovered her joie de vivre after attending a handicrafts course, and became a promoter of urban values and the creator of a crafts workshop in her own neighbourhood.

ENVIRONMENT: Emergency Brakes Needed to Stop Climate Crash

In the end, governments accepted evidence from the world's top scientists that climate change impacts could be abrupt and irreversible, and that they require urgent action.

SOUTH KOREA: At Home in Mr Toilet’s House

Generally relegated to the far and hidden corners of a house, or even outside in rural areas, toilets have never been given the attention they deserve.

EUROPE: Trade Rope Around Mediterranean Nears

Judging by some of their statements lately, European Union officials are hoping to chalk up a new entry in the Guinness Book of Records: the creation of the world's largest free trade area.

LATIN AMERICA: And Now For Some More Ambitious Anti-Poverty Goals

Sixty-eight percent of the time available for reaching the first Millennium Development Goal (MDG), which is to halve the proportion of people living in extreme poverty by 2015, has expired, and Latin America has gone 87 percent of the way towards achieving it. Countries that have advanced the most should now work on halving total poverty, ECLAC says.

TRADE-AFRICA: ”EU Inflexible Towards Most Vulnerable Countries”

There has been no shortage of speculation in Brussels recently about breakthroughs being imminent in the trade talks taking place between the European Union (EU) and African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries.

ECONOMY-US: Hunger Stalks World&#39s Wealthiest Country

More than one in 10 people in the United States go hungry, according to new official figures that suggest government food programmes are falling short in the world's wealthiest country.

TRADE: EU Set to Milk East Africa With Subsidised Goods?

‘‘Dairy farmers in Kenya are doing well now,’’ says Peter Wanyeki, as he flashes a big smile. ‘‘Before, when we went home to the village, you could never take enough money with you. Everybody was poor. But now the situation is different. The dairy farmers are rich because they are getting a very good price for their milk.’’

TRADE-GHANA: &#39&#39EU Will Be the Main Beneficiary of the EPAs&#39&#39

If Ghana’s government used civil society protests as guideline as to which way to go in the negotiations with the European Union (EU) on the economic partnership agreement (EPA), the talks would have been terminated.

PARAGUAY: State Accused of Violating Rights of Rural Poor

Civil society groups in Paraguay are hoping to persuade a United Nations expert committee to send international observers to investigate allegations of violations of the rights of peasant farmers and indigenous people in this country.

GREECE: More Poverty Than Meets the Eye

A third of Greeks live close to the poverty line or under, a new survey has found. The poverty limit is drawn at an income of 470 euros a month per adult.