DEVELOPMENT: World Bank Predicts Betterment, In a Way

By 2030, 1.2 billion people in developing countries will belong to a global middle class, up from 400 million today. The increase in wealth will make income inequality and environmental pressures more acute, predicts the World Bank in a report on 'Managing the Next Wave of Globalisation'.

COTE D’IVOIRE: Toxic Waste Scandal Becomes a Political Football

Côte d'Ivoire is ending 2006 on a turbulent note, with protests against President Laurent Gbagbo's decision to reinstate officials implicated in the recent toxic waste scandal - and ongoing tensions between Gbagbo and Prime Minister Charles Konan Banny.

DEATH PENALTY: Will It Be Reactivated in Guinea – Again?

Behind bars, away from intrusive stares, the prisoners most recently sentenced to death in Guinea wait to hear their fate. The last time executions were carried out in this West African country was in 2001.

DEVELOPMENT: ACP Nations Opt for Trade on Their Terms

Leaders of the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Group of States wrapped up their fifth summit Friday in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum - this after two days of debate over trade relations between the ACP, a 79-member grouping that includes some of the world's poorest nations - and the European Union (EU).

DEVELOPMENT: Trade Agreements, Darfur in the Spotlight at ACP Gathering

The fifth summit of the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Group of States is taking place under the theme 'United for Peace, Solidarity and Sustainability'; however, negotiations at the meeting may have a somewhat less harmonious tone.

DEVELOPMENT: ACP States Feeling the Pinch of 2007 Trade Deadline

The fifth summit of the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Group of States will kick off on Thursday in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, amidst fierce speculation over the fate of trade agreements between the European Union (EU) and ACP nations.

DEVELOPMENT-COTE D’IVOIRE: Calls for Service Payments Collide With Poverty

While there may be no such thing as a free lunch, people living in the north of Côte d'Ivoire have come close. For the past four years, free water and electricity have been supplied to citizens in this region, an area under rebel control.

RIGHTS-SOUTH AFRICA: Marital Bliss Amidst Anti-Gay Prejudice

Bongani*, resplendent in a tailored suit in brilliant white, alighted from a white Mercedes Benz adorned with golden ribbons. By his side appeared Sipho* in a black suit and elegant yellow silk necktie. It was their wedding day.

DEVELOPMENT-CAMEROON: NGOs to the Defence of Local Farmers

Cameroonian civil society groups are expressing concern at the effects of trade liberalisation on the Central African country's food security.

WORLD AIDS DAY-BURKINA FASO: The High Cost of Not Having Free ARVs

"I think free treatment for all (HIV) infected people is indispensable, just as safeguarding the jobs of those with HIV is a must," says Issa Kindo, a public health physician in Ouagadougou, capital of Burkina Faso.

HEALTH-AFRICA: The Promise and Problems of Telemedicine

As the 11th annual conference of the International Society for Telemedicine and eHealth drew to a close Wednesday in Cape Town, South Africa, the ability of Africa to adopt and sustain telemedicine to improve delivery of health care in under-serviced rural areas came under discussion.

COTE D’IVOIRE: A New Approach to HIV/AIDS in the Blackboard Jungle

Education officials in Côte d'Ivoire are revising how children are taught about the dangers of HIV/AIDS in the West African country, this as statistics from June 2006 show prevalence in schools to be at four percent.

AFRICA: For Good Health, Think eHealth

The 11th conference of the International Society for Telemedicine and eHealth (ISfTeH) kicked off Monday at the International Convention Centre in Cape Town, South Africa, where delegates from around the globe gathered to discuss the benefits and challenges that eHealth (electronic health) offers to both the developed and developing world.

POLITICS-MOROCCO: Discussions Over King’s Position on Constitutional Chessboard

Moroccans are currently engaged in a debate about the possibility of reducing the constitutional powers of their king - this after a collective of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) issued an appeal titled 'For a New Constitution That Works'.

EDUCATION-CAMEROON: Poverty and Culture Conspire to Deny Girls Schooling

Of the 71 pupils in Daouda Soulé's class, only 18 are girls. "Last year there were about 20 girls, but even some...who were promoted to the next grade dropped out and are at home, although primary school is free," the teacher at the Central Public School in Garoua, northern Cameroon, told IPS.

CULTURE-CAMEROON: Little Unity in Diversity

For some time now, the sporadic eruption of inter-ethnic conflict in most of Cameroon, sometimes with tragic consequences, has prompted concern about the future of this Central African country.

ENVIRONMENT-AFRICA: Greenhouse Gas Targets Elusive After Climate Talks

International talks on climate change held at a conference in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, ended Friday without having established a solid timetable for cuts in greenhouse gas emissions after the Kyoto Protocol expires.

DEVELOPMENT-AFRICA: If You Can’t Escape Climate Change, Adapt to It

A conference on climate change, about to wrap up in the Kenyan capital of Nairobi, has heard that adaptation to the effects of shifting weather patterns can play a key role in efforts to address climate change - alongside the bid to lessen greenhouse gas emissions.

DEVELOPMENT-BENIN: A Blow Against Poverty

Benin is hoping that a five-year, multi-million-dollar grant from the United States under the auspices of the Millennium Challenge Account (MCA) will finance development projects to reduce poverty, notably through resolving land ownership and credit problems.

ENVIRONMENT-AFRICA: Changing Climate, Changing Lives

Marginalised communities attending a United Nations conference on climate change being held in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, have given accounts of how their lives are being altered for the worse - something they blame on climate change.

DEVELOPMENT: Turning the Tide on Human Suffering

If the world's growing water crisis remains unresolved - depriving clean water to more than one billion of the world's six billion people - it will jeopardise the U.N.'s longstanding battle to reduce global poverty, hunger and disease by its targeted date of 2015, the U.N. Development Programme (UNDP) warned Thursday.