ECONOMY-PHILIPPINES: Migrant Workers Use Remittances as Investment Tools

George Detubio, once an Overseas Filipino Worker (OFW) is enjoying his new career as an entrepreneur. The 47-year-old owns a thriving business – distributing liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) products in this town, 200 kilometers north of Manila.

AGRICULTURE-AFRICA: Seeking Diversity, Resilience and Farmer Control

The Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) claims that its "stress breeding", high-yield seed program and its emphasis on grassroots farmer input will boost agricultural production among poor, small scale farmers. But NGOs and environmentalists say AGRA’s Programme for Africa’s Seed System (PASS) is essentially a top-down, corporate driven approach that further threatens food security on the continent.

AGRICULTURE-AFRICA: Questioning Old Traditions

Inefficient production, bad infrastructure, poor access to markets, a lack of capital investment: the challenges facing smallholder farmers across Africa are many. A 'green revolution' which appears to be gaining ground in Africa seeks to change all this.

LATIN AMERICA: Future of Private Pension Funds in Doubt

Pension funds in Latin America have suffered sometimes drastic losses as a result of the global financial crisis. Argentina decided to nationalise its private pension funds, and in Chile, Colombia and Mexico there are voices urgently calling for reforms.

ARGENTINA: Govt Announces End of Private Pension Funds

Against the backdrop of the current global financial turmoil, Argentine President Cristina Fernández on Tuesday proposed the elimination of the privately administered retirement accounts created 14 years ago.

ECONOMY-KENYA: Shady Deals and Intrigues Haunt Privatisation

The Kenya Railways Corporation was more than a national utility. It was a repository of Kenya’s history, beginning in the 19th century when indentured Indian labourers were brought to the East African region to build the Kenya-Uganda railway line.

PARAGUAY: Fourteen Years in the Wilderness

Indigenous Enxet people are still waiting for the restitution of their ancestral lands, nearly three years after the Paraguayan state was convicted by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights of usurping territory and violating basic rights. Meanwhile, they endure overwhelming poverty.

DEVELOPMENT: Water Flowing Back Into Public Hands

The announcement by the Paris municipality that water services will return to public hands by 2010 is in line with a global trend of ending privatisation of such services.

DEVELOPMENT-ANGOLA: Absorbing Lessons on Clean Water

Playing happily in the sand with her twin sister, it's hard to believe Vivia Paulino was only months ago on the brink of death.

ICELAND: Outsourcing of Hospital Services Opposed

"I was so shocked when I went there just now," said Arndis Lilja Nielsdottir, referring to the situation in a new ward at Landakot geriatric hospital. The ward is now being run by Grund, a company providing residential and nursing home care for the elderly.

ARGENTINA: Bad Trips for Most, High Speed Trains for the Few

The Argentine government has given the go-ahead for a high-speed electric train which may be the first in Latin America. But experts and, above all, commuters who travel daily on slow, shabby suburban trains are angry, because the multi-million dollar project will only benefit an elite few.

OIL-MEXICO: PEMEX Reform Debate Entrenched in Dogma

The debate in the Mexican Congress over the government’s proposals to reform the state oil company, PEMEX, has placed the oft- amended constitution of 1917 and the elusive concepts of nationalism and sovereignty squarely at the centre of the controversy.

Q&A: Russian Children Learn Market Ways

After the political changes that brought in capitalism, education in Russia emerged from its old centralised style. The changes in education now have been no less radical than the political changes.

DEVELOPMENT: AsDB Soliciting Private Investments

When he was not attending seminars at a conference centre in the Spanish capital, the Asian Development Bank’s (AsDB) Seethapathy Chander was trying to broker deals to attract European investors to developing regions of Asia.

KOSOVO: No Freedom from Corruption

The new government in Kosovo has failed so far to live up to its promise of fighting corruption.

POLITICS-MALAYSIA: Equitable Distribution of Wealth – The Challenge

With Malaysia's opposition pact in the ascendancy after stunning gains in a general election last month, some are wondering how different their economic policies are likely to be if they do wrest power, as many expect them to do, eventually.

GLOBALISATION: New Curbs on Investment From the South

Germany's decision to introduce controls on investments from the South in strategic domestic sectors is yet another indicator of growing protectionism in European and other industrialised countries against the neo-liberal globalisation they once masterminded.

VENEZUELA: New Windfall Profit Tax on Oil

Venezuela is about to levy a new tax on the income of oil companies profiting from the soaring prices of crude, which have brought them petrodollars in amounts over and above provision for investment, costs and a reasonable profit margin.

MEXICO: Oil Industry Reforms Face Uphill Battle

The debate on the Mexican government’s proposed reforms of the state oil industry began Wednesday in a climate marked by threats of a social uprising by the leftwing opposition and uncertainty of the bill’s ultimate fate.

OIL-MEXICO: Floundering in Deep Waters

Billions of barrels of crude are lying under the deep seabed in the Gulf of Mexico, an area divided between Cuba, the United States and Mexico. But while the first two countries are approaching full commercial exploitation, the third is still trying to come up with a plan.

GREECE: Social Security Reforms Spark Unrest

Millions of workers participated in a general strike Wednesday on the eve of a parliament vote on pension and social security reforms. Despite vehement opposition, the government voted the reform through with 151 votes, the absolute minimum required for passing the legislation.