RIGHTS-JAPAN: Calls for Peace Echo at Children's Forum

In a fittingly solemn gesture of peace and renewal, children and adults belonging to different faiths offered flowers and prayers, Monday, for the thousands of people who became the first ever victims of a nuclear bombing in this city 63 years ago.

DEVELOPMENT: Poverty Thrives Amid Unprecedented Prosperity

Global poverty is thriving - rather ironically - amidst one of the most prosperous times in human history.

TRADE-AFRICA: ‘‘Build Regional Markets to Prevent Hunger’’

Regional trade agreements could not only serve to protect farmers in developing countries but could also be used for the swift distribution of food aid from neighbouring countries in times of famine.

Q&A: Lack of Food Is a "Persistent Myth"

The current food crisis has revived the myth that the world doesn't produce enough food for its six billion people, according to Michel Pimbert, author of a new study that highlights local production as a potential solution.

BURMA: Did Cyclone Nargis Kill 300,000 People?

Three weeks after Cyclone Nargis crashed through Burma’s populous Irrawaddy Delta, the country’s military regime has been more forthcoming about the number of buffaloes and chickens that perished than on human casualties.

TRADE: France Seeks Greater Flexibility with Africa

France, the forthcoming holder of the European Union's rotating presidency, has asked that the bloc display greater flexibility in talks aimed at reaching free trade accords with Africa.

DEVELOPMENT: Food Security Requires New Approach to Water

The ongoing food crisis, characterised by growing shortages and rising prices of staple commodities, has far reaching implications for the world's scarce water resources, says a new study released here.

KENYA: Teenage Mothers Denied Education

At 17, Julia Metito* (*not her real name) should be in her final year in secondary school in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, but three years ago she had to leave school to give birth and then nurse a child. Today, she finds herself in Class Seven with 13-year-olds. 13,000 girls leave school every year in Kenya due to pregnancy, according to research released at the beginning of May by the Centre for the Study of Adolescence, a non-governmental organisation that works on reproductive health, gender and social policy for teenagers.

TRADE-INDIA: 'WTO Market Access Proposal Unacceptable'

India has raised strong objections to the draft negotiating document on non-agricultural market access (NAMA) on trade in industrial products, released Monday by the World Trade Organisation (WTO).

VIETNAM: Infant Abandonment Worse Than Adoption Fraud?

While Vietnam has stopped its adoption agreement with the United States in reaction to an embassy report alleging corruption, baby selling and forced relinquishment by birth mothers, the question of abandoned children remains unaddressed.

MEDIA: Tierramerica Awarded Zayed Prize for the Environment

The specialised weekly news service on the environment and development, Tierramérica, was awarded the Zayed International Prize in the category of Environmental Action Leading to Positive Change in Society, which is granted by the United Arab Emirates.

ENVIRONMENT-BURMA: 'Mangrove Loss Exacerbated Cyclone Devastation'

When researchers surveyed the battered coastlines of Asian countries after the December 2004 tsunami, they stumbled upon an arresting fact - that mangroves can save lives.

EUROPE: Most Countries Fail to Increase Aid

Over half of the European Union's 27 governments failed to increase the amount of aid they gave to poor countries between 2006 and last year, according to a new report.

PAKISTAN: Water – At Much More Than a Turn of the Tap

For the uninitiated, it’s surreal: men and boys stepping out of their homes into the unpaved and narrow alleys of the Korangi Dhai slum in the wee hours before dawn, armed with rolls of colourful plastic tubing and heavy electric pumps.

EL SALVADOR: Poor Eating Less While Food Prices Soar

Eating less is the only option left to the poorest of the poor in El Salvador, in the face of the steady rise in global food prices, which has had an impact on the domestic cost of staples like rice, beans, tortillas, milk, eggs and bread.

DEVELOPMENT: U.S. Might Just Choke the WHO

As the 61st annual World Health Assembly gathers in Geneva this week, a major issue that the world's governments are struggling with is patents on medicines, and whether the option to digress from a strict patent system should be endorsed by the United Nations World Health Organisation (WHO).

MEXICO-US: The Perverse Patent of the Yellow Bean

Patenting an invention in the United States and benefiting from the patent rights is, in theory, an incentive for innovation and scientific discovery. But in practice it can spur theft, as occurred with a variety of Mexican bean.

PARAGUAY: Women’s Cooperative Buys in Bulk to Beat Food Inflation

Making the old saying "cheaper by the dozen" their motto, a group of women in a poor neighbourhood of Asunción created a cooperative to buy food in bulk, in order to combat the rise in food prices.

Q&A: South Africa To Reconsider Its Trade Agreement With EU?

As a result of the free trade agreements with the European Union, called economic partnership agreements, regional integration in Southern Africa is in tatters (see accompanying article - link below). The question arises: what kind of integration would engender broad-based development?

Q&A: "People Are Pedaling Faster to Stay in the Same Place"

In early May, Statistics Canada, the government's official number crunchers, released what was billed as a landmark report titled "Income Inequality and Redistribution in Canada: 1976 to 2004". The report was based on census data from the 1980s to 2005 and it analysed take-home pay and standards of living for families and individuals.

FINANCE: IMF “Cure” for Food Crisis Also a Cause

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) says it is responding to the global food crisis by doling out new emergency loans to 15 of the world's poorest nations, mostly in Africa.