Ex-Inspector Rejects IAEA Iran Bomb Test Chamber Claim

A former inspector for the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has repudiated its major new claim that Iran built an explosives chamber to test components of a nuclear weapon and carry out a simulated nuclear explosion.

DEVELOPMENT: New Aid Model Expected at Busan

A new model of making development assistance more successful is expected to emerge at the Fourth High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness (HLF-4), to be held Nov. 29 - Dec. 1 in Busan, Korea.

INDIA: Dangers of a Lax Nuclear Strategy

On August 26, Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan resigned, taking responsibility for the disastrous meltdown of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, which was caused by the March 2011 undersea earthquake and ensuing tsunami.

PAKISTAN: Beating the Taliban on the Playing Fields

An outbreak of sports fever has gripped the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) of Northern Pakistan, as increasing numbers of civilians and government officials latch on to team sports as their only armour against creeping militancy in the border region.

China Confronts its Own Greece

Europe has its Greece moment and China has its Wenzhou crisis. When European leaders were calling on China to step in and provide a lifeline to the eurozone by investing in its bailout programme, voices inside China were saying Beijing should save Wenzhou and forget about Europe.

EL SALVADOR: Giving Young Slum Dwellers a Chance

In a country where hard-line policies have failed to make a dent in soaring levels of violent crime, Salesian priest José María Moratalla has produced good results by offering educational and vocational opportunities to juvenile offenders and young people at risk of falling into crime.

U.S. Leads Challenge to Ban on Cluster Munitions

Deliberations are underway for a United States-backed proposal to allow the continued use, production, trade and stockpiling of cluster munitions at the Fourth Review Conference of the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW) in Geneva.

CENTRAL ASIA: Together They Lose

Rarely have so many donor countries spent so much for so long to achieve so little. In fact, the scores of Western countries ranging from the Netherlands to the United States that have tried for 20 years to coax the Central Asian nations to use their water cooperatively and create a win-win situation for all have found that the Central Asians are cooperating less and less, not more and more.

U.S.: Occupy Movement Pushes Back in Coordinated Day of Action

Tens of thousands of people in hundreds of cities across the country flooded streets, public squares and university campuses in the largest nationwide action since the first group of occupiers set up its encampment in New York City exactly two months ago Thursday.

US-IRAN: Key Senator Pushes “Nuclear Option” Against Central Bank

Amid simmering tensions surrounding Iran's nuclear programme, a key pro-Israel U.S. senator has tabled legislation that would effectively ban international financial companies that do business with the Central Bank of Iran (CBI) from participating in the U.S. economy.

BRAZIL: ‘Pacification’ of Favelas Not Just a Media Circus

The "take-over" of Rocinha, one of Rio de Janeiro's largest favelas, by heavily armed police and military units was seen by some as a media spectacle and by others as part of a successful strategy of regaining state control over an area ruled by armed drug gangs.

Q&A: The Finer Points of Rising Sea Levels

Long before the Pacific will rise to a level that will leave its estimated 30,000 islands submerged, most of them might be severely affected by frequent flooding and storms.

MEXICO: Communities Organise Against Spiralling Violence

A pressing concern of Mexican communities today is how to organise against the escalation of violence triggered by the government's militarised war on drugs, and how to counteract the temptation of easy money and other perks offered by the drug trade, especially to young men.

ASEAN Agrees to Let Myanmar Lead Bloc

Leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or ASEAN, have approved Myanmar's request to chair the Southeast Asian regional bloc in 2014, giving the country some long-sought international recognition.

Q&A: NATO Intervention in Libya Was “Recolonisation”

Brazilian journalist and writer Mário Augusto Jakobskind was thwarted in his attempt to visit Libya during the civil war there, but in spite of this he produced a lucid analysis of the situation in the North African country and of the forces that have taken power after the fall of the Muammar Gaddafi regime.

Raids in Syria as Pressure Mounts on Assad

Syrian activists say troops have made sweeping arrests in the flashpoint province of Hama as President Bashar al-Assad faces a growing challenge to his rule.

ASIA-PACIFIC: Refugees of Climate Change Rising Steadily

Asian countries, home to about 60 percent of the world's population, will be hit hardest by changing weather patterns and a degrading environment, research indicates.

U.S.: The ‘School to Prison Pipeline’: Education Under Arrest

Metal detectors. Teams of drug-sniffing dogs. Armed guards and riot police. Forbiddingly high walls topped with barbed wire.

U.S.: Pacific Pivot or APEC Misstep?

President Barack Obama intended to use the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meeting last weekend in Hawai'i to signal a shift in U.S. foreign policy away from the Middle East and toward the Asia-Pacific region.

U.S.: Occupy Cal Students Revive Camp After Police Clubbing

Occupy Cal students were clubbed by baton-wielding university police Nov. 9 - with beatings captured on video - when they linked arms and refused to disband the tent camp they had erected on the University of California, Berkeley campus.

CUBA: Strategic Battle against Corruption

The battle against corruption is one of the greatest challenges faced by Cuban President Raúl Castro, who began designing his strategy for preventing and combating the problem when he temporarily took office after his brother Fidel fell ill in July 2006.