Free Ride for Oil and Coal Industry May Be Over

Every day, governments give away an estimated two billion dollars of taxpayer money to the fossil fuel industry. This unmatched largesse to a highly profitable sector by countries verging on bankruptcy or unable to feed large numbers of their own people is "complete madness", according to many experts.

SOMALIA: Questions Abound about EU’s “Combating” of Piracy

Modern German justice had never handled a case of piracy until Jun 11, when 10 Somali seafarers, including children, were presented at a tribunal in the city port of Hamburg, some 300 km west from Berlin, on charges of robbing cargo in the Indian Ocean.

LATIN AMERICA: Predatory Harvests

Industrial-scale monoculture farming is violating the human rights to adequate food and housing, as well as labour, territorial and environmental rights in Latin America, according to a report released Monday in the Mexican capital.

TRADE: “Cotton Dossier” Will Make or Break WTO’s Doha Round

The "cotton dossier" has become a litmus test for the "development dimension" of the languishing Doha Round trade negotiations, World Trade Organisation (WTO) director general Pascal Lamy admitted.

AFRICA: Less Funds Will Cause Unnecessary AIDS Deaths

Backtracking by international donors in funding the fight against HIV/AIDS risks widening the treatment gap in Africa, undermining years of positive achievements in the field, warns a new Medecins Sans Frontières report. And many more unnecessary HIV-related deaths will be caused by these shifts in international donor funding

Money Begets Environmental Evils, Study Finds

Rising global wealth spells disaster for the planet, with environmental impacts growing roughly 80 percent with a doubling of income, reports the first comprehensive study of consumption.

Q&A: National Study on Child Grant to Start

The department of social development hopes government will increase the child support grant based on the outcome of a rigorous nationwide study on the positive effects the grant has on South African society.

Angola’s Small-Scale Farmers Welcome Investment, Urge Careful Targeting

Think small to overcome big problems - that was the message to African governments being urged to do more to increase food security and reduce hunger and malnutrition on the continent.

RiGHTS: Villagers Pay Dearly for India’s War with Maoists

Almost a year on, Dipali Sahu still recalls with horror the day an operation by the policemen and paramilitary troopers began here in June last year to take back control of the vast swathes of eastern India captured by the Maoist rebels.

HEALTH-KENYA: Funding Threatens AIDS Prevention

Pregnant mothers who are HIV-positive could soon find it challenging to access life-saving HIV drugs because Kenya was denied 270 million dollars in funding from the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.

HEALTH-SOUTH AFRICA: Five Years to Children Born Free of HIV

A world where all children are born free of HIV infection is possible in only five years if donors continue to fund global efforts to combat the virus.

SOUTH AFRICA: Increase in Social Grants Will Benefit Children

South Africa’s children, the country’s most vulnerable population group, will benefit through the increase in social grants recently outlined in the national budget.

ENERGY-ARGENTINA: Agrofuels Rev Their Engines

In a measure that was delayed by supply problems, this year Argentina is beginning to require that gasoline be mixed with ethanol and diesel fuel with biodiesel, at a proportion of five percent, to possibly reach 20 percent by 2015.

MALAWI: Green Belt Initiative Taking Shape

Let the rains fail, even for several successive seasons, and Malawi should still be able to produce enough to feed itself.

SOUTH AFRICA: Hard Lessons for Small Business on the West Coast

The sound of sewing machines fills the room with a low, continuous hum. A handful of women sit behind the machines, their heads bent in concentration on their work.

CLIMATE CHANGE: ‘Cut Fossil Fuel Subsidies but Compensate the Poor’

Cutting governmental subsidies for fossil energy could lead to a 10 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 as compared to 1990 levels, says a recent study by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development.

AFRICA: Climate Change Worsening Farming’s Trade-Related Woes

Numerous research institutes and international organisations agree that climate change will in the short and medium term worsen Africa's agriculture and food production capabilities, unless greenhouse gases emissions (GHE) are substantially reduced and adequate trade and investment policies put in place.

MALAWI: Non-Voters Denied Farm Subsidies

Gina Champiti, a widowed mother of eight children aged between three and 12 did not register to vote in the May presidential and parliamentary elections. This is going to cost her her livelihood.

TRADE: Will Obama Steer New Course in Delhi and Pittsburgh?

A "mini-ministerial" meeting has been convened by the World Trade Organisation (WTO) in Delhi to help member countries draft a roadmap to conclude the troubled Doha round and set the stage for the G20 later this month and the WTO ministerial in Geneva in November.

TRADE: France Conned EU’s Controversial Subsidies Scheme

The European Commission is demanding that the French government pays back 500 million euros spent on aid to French farmers. The scheme is in breach of European competition law as it financed competition with France’s neighbours by providing vegetable and fruit producers with hefty subsidies for more than a decade.

ENERGY: "Nuclear Steals Billions from Other Technologies"

Why is nuclear energy back on the table?