INDIA: Draconian Law Under the Lens

A draconian law that allows army officers to shoot civilians in areas declared 'disturbed' has come under intense scrutiny, mainly as a result of months of separatist street protests in India's Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) state.

TRADE: South Africa Flexing its Muscles With Poor Neighbours

The beleaguered Southern African Customs Union (SACU) has to face up to serious challenges at its upcoming heads of state meeting in October, including the divergent interests of its member states and the lack of coordinated industrial policies in the union.

CUBA: Black Women Face Double Discrimination, Half Century After Revolution

Cuban women have to work twice as hard as men to get ahead in their careers. But things are even tougher for black women in Cuba, although discrimination by reason of gender or skin colour is prohibited by law and by the constitution itself.

U.S.: FBI Chastised for Spying on Activists

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) improperly spied on U.S. activists involved in First Amendment-protected activities and mischaracterised nonviolent civil disobedience as terrorism, which placed innocent activists on terror watch lists, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) charged Tuesday in response to a new report by the Justice Department's Inspector General.

CENTRAL AMERICA: Youth Gangs – Reserve Army for Organised Crime

In El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala, the expression "de rodillas ante las pandillas" is not just a catchy rhyme referring to youth gangs bringing the countries to their knees but is an accurate description of reality today: these criminal groups, born and evolved in violence, wield ever-increasing power.

IRAQ: After False Promises, the Heat Is On

Iraqis promised development with the ouster of Saddam Hussein and the arrival of the U.S. are now suffering lack of development as never before. And where it hurts every moment is through the collapse of power supply.

SOUTH-EAST ASIA: Health Inequity Slows Decline in Child Mortality

Cambodia’s partial success in reducing child mortality rates has exposed a fault line of inequity, one that underscores the advantage that the country’s urban population has had over the rural poor.

U.S. Boosts Aid Amid Doubts About Pakistan’s Recovery

The administration of U.S. President Barack Obama has announced it will provide an additional 75 million dollars in food aid to help Pakistan cope with floods that have affected about one-fifth of the country - including some 20 million people - since they began in July.

MILLENNIUM GOALS: A Question of Political Will

"I am not pessimistic, but I am realistic. Under present conditions and the prevailing system of world government, the Millennium Development Goals simply cannot be achieved," Cuban Deputy Foreign Minister Abelardo Moreno said in an interview with IPS.

Q&A: “Political Conversations Are Now on Steroids”

Andrew Rasiej hurriedly gets off the phone, explaining that he was talking to Arianna Huffington, founder of uber-website The Huffington Post. She just published a new book, and Rasiej was providing ideas on how to use social media to promote it.

MEXICO: Artists Push ‘Other’ Bicentennial Viewpoint

"The homeland is not the flag / the anthem is not the country / that is just the varnish / that adorns the outside," states a poem written in Spanish by artist Enrique Cisneros in reference to Mexico's ongoing bicentennial celebrations.

THAILAND: Red Shirts Bring Politics of Discontent Back to the Streets

After a lapse of four months, Pukkie Mathika was finally able to break her silence, finding her way back to a busy intersection in the heart of an up-market shopping district here in Bangkok to rage against the Thai government.

POLITICS-AFGHANISTAN: For Refugees, Polls are Far and Near

Afghan voters just went to national parliamentary elections, but refugees from that country here in neighbouring Pakistan could only rue the fact that they have been left out of this vote.

MIDEAST: Some Killing More ‘Moral’ Than Other

Controversy is building up over a 91-year-old man, his 17-year-old grandson and a 20-year-old neighbour, all farmers, who were killed by Israeli shelling and gunfire as they tried to tend their land 700 metres from northern Gaza's border with Israel.

CAMBODIA: Justice Goes Beyond Indictment of Khmer Rouge Leaders

A war crimes tribunal in Cambodia may have reached a major milestone this week by indicting four former leaders of the Khmer Rouge. But much more needs to be done to ensure that the long-awaited trial is meaningful to the regime’s victims, analysts say.

Inequality, Chile’s Bicentennial Challenge

Chile is celebrating 200 years of independence as one of the Latin American countries with the lowest proportion of poor people, but also one of the most unequal.

Activists Warn of Rights Crisis Ahead of Ahmadinejad Visit

Speaking at a press conference in New York Friday, Shirin Ebadi, a highly-regarded Iranian attorney and the 2003 Nobel Peace Prize laureate, warned that the human rights situation in Iran is deteriorating, particularly for the many journalists and civil society activists considered political prisoners.

Expectations Scaled Back for Cancun Climate Summit

When, following months of hype, ministers and negotiating teams arrived in Copenhagen last December for a summit on climate change, the expectations for what could be accomplished were unrealistic and made the successes that did occur seem less important than they were, says the climate chief of Mexico, which will host this year’s successor to the Copenhagen summit.

BRAZIL: Development Trumps Environment on Election Agenda

With Brazil's elections only about a fortnight away, there is already a clear winner: "developmentalism." This position espoused by the two main presidential candidates has relegated pressing environmental issues to a lowly place on the campaign agenda, in spite of the fact that the third contender represents the Green Party (PV).

SOUTHERN AFRICA: Paying for Social Protection

Despite the Southern Africa region sustaining an annual growth rate of six percent, the U.N. Summit on the Millennium Development Goals will hear that the majority of Southern Africans remain among the poorest people in the world.

ECONOMY-PAKISTAN: As Floods Recede, Hope Emerges in Next Crop

"The Indus (River) showed us who this country belongs to – and that is, to the Indus," declares economist Haris Gazdar, referring to the recent deluge that wrought untold devastation to Pakistan. "We must respect rivers and not treat them with the contempt we show towards everything else."