Negative Stereotypes Persist Between West and Muslims

Westerners and Muslims continue to hold negative stereotypes of each other, although views of Muslims in the West appear to have improved marginally over the past five years, according to a new survey released here by the Pew Global Attitudes Project Thursday.

Eurozone Leaders Reach Greek Debt Agreement

Eurozone leaders have agreed in a crucial summit to find a way out for Greece to manage its debt crisis.

ECUADOR: President Wins Defamation Suit Against Newspaper Execs

President Rafael Correa of Ecuador has won a libel suit against the newspaper El Universo over an op-ed column that referred to him as the "Dictator" and accused him of committing "crimes against humanity."

MALAWI: Fuel Shortages Ignite Violent Nationwide Protests

In light of the recent spate of protests in Malawi, government should rethink its policy to devalue the local currency, economists say.

ENVIRONMENT: Indonesians Await Forest Tenure Reform

Barbecue fires along the winding trail through the Sesaot forest reserve act as guides for delegates walking to an international forestry conference at a nearby beach resort.

War Makes for Strange Bedfellows

A soldier and an Islamist - both fleeing the crackdown on Syrian pro-democracy protesters and seeking refuge in neighbouring Lebanon - have discovered that they share similar views on the ongoing uprising.

BRAZIL: Nuclear Subs to Defend Oil, Project Global Power

Plans for a Brazilian nuclear submarine that had been postponed since the 1970s are beginning to materialise, as the nuclear-propelled sub is regarded as a strategic necessity to guard Brazil's deep water oil reserves, and to project global power.

EGYPT: ‘One Mubarak Goes, 18 Come In’

Almost six months after the popular uprising that led to the ouster of former president Hosni Mubarak, the honeymoon between protesters and Egypt's ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) - initially portrayed as a "defender of the revolution" - appears to be over.

Bangladesh Offers Lessons in Microcredit Management

Phulo Rani Pal checks for loose dust around her open backyard kitchen. It’s time to prepare the sweets she supplies to vendors and it will not do for her products to be contaminated.

MEXICO: Central American Migrants Preyed on By Organised Crime, Police

Miguel, a 32-year-old Nicaraguan, and his wife have spent several days at a shelter for migrants in the southwest Mexican state of Oaxaca, where they fled after being robbed, extorted and threatened by corrupt municipal police and youth gang members.

Security Council Won’t Take Stand on Climate Change

The United Nations Security Council failed to reach agreement on a non-binding statement Wednesday asserting that climate change should be recognised as an international peace and security issue.

SOUTH AFRICA: Mutually Beneficial Trade With India a Key Objective

South African companies are being urged to use the leverage of its government’s strong political relationship with India to develop new business and investment opportunities.

Bitter Divides Persist Below Bahrain’s Relatively Calm Surface

When Bahraini ambassador Houda Ezra Nonoo arrived in Washington three years ago, she was greeted as the representative of a close U.S. ally with a reputation for more openness and tolerance than most Gulf nations.

CHINA: Not Dollar, Not Euro, But Gold

Growing concerns about the slow death of the dollar rather than a saviour’s goodwill are underpinning China’s widely publicised purchases of European government debt, according to experts. But as the Eurozone debt crisis spreads from Greece and Portugal to countries like Italy and threatens the very survival of the euro, China’s finance mandarins and keepers of the country’s 3 trillion dollars foreign reserves are looking yet again at gold as the anchor of stability.

Sri Lankan Jails “Hell” for Women

Monthly ‘visiting hours’ at the female ward of Sri Lanka’s notorious Welikada Prison are as traumatic for the inmates as they are for their family and friends. A tiny room, measuring 10 feet by seven feet, is divided in half by a mesh counter. On one side, mothers, fathers, children and relatives jostle for standing room. On the other the inmates, in white prison clothes, shout to be heard over the din.

The “Disappeared” – New Face of Mexico’s Drug War

Chess player Roberto Galván, 33, was detained Jan. 25 by the police in the northeast Mexican state of Nuevo León as he sat on a bench in the central square of General Terán, a town 100 km from Monterrey. No one has seen him since.

BOLIVIA: New Food Policy to Boost Small-Scale Farms

In the midst of heated debate with agribusiness, the Bolivian government has launched an agricultural production model aimed at boosting food sovereignty by supporting small farmers, in order to generate surpluses to cushion the swings in international food prices.

PAKISTAN: ‘U.S. Military Aid Came With Spies Attached’

Defence analysts in Pakistan believe that foregoing 800 million US dollars worth of aid may be a fair bargain for ridding this country of over a hundred ‘military trainers’ who were suspected of being spies.

‘Forgotten Australians’ Demand More Than Apologies

Laurie Humphreys was on the first ship after World War II that brought 150 British boys and girls, aged five to 14 years, to Australia in 1947. At 13, he was promised oranges and sunshine and an adventurous holiday, but reality was different.

US-LIBYA: No Early End to War Expected

Fortified by formal U.S. recognition as Libya's legitimate government, fighters loyal to the rebel Benghazi-based Transitional National Council (TNC) made a key advance Monday by reportedly gaining control of most of the eastern oil port of Brega.

COLOMBIA: Europe Presses for Justice in Wiretapping Case

Colombia's DAS domestic secret police service was under the authority of then president Álvaro Uribe "and it is impossible to think that he didn't know about" the intelligence agency's illegal spying activities, Isabelle Durant, a vice president of the European Parliament, said on a recent visit to this South American country.