When Defence Secretary Leon Panetta told Washington Post
columnist David Ignatius this week that he believes Israel was
likely to attack Iran between April and June, it was
ostensibly yet another expression of alarm at the Israeli
government's threats of military action.
Twenty years ago, a military rebellion led by Venezuelan
president - then lieutenant-colonel - Hugo Chávez ushered in
an enduring era of turmoil for the country's democracy, with
abrupt changes in its institutions and a climate of political
upheaval and social and economic instability.
The illegal trade in ivory continues in Egypt, with ivory products sold openly in
local tourist markets by traders who operate with impunity, a new study by the
conservation group Traffic has found.
Women have been left in charge of many of the households in the village of
Zamkoye-Koïra, in western Niger, as food shortages have driven male family
members to leave in search of work elsewhere. A national survey of vulnerable
households shows that 5.4 million people face food insecurity across Niger.
Earlier this week, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban
Development (HUD) announced the publication of a new notice
which significantly tightens its procedures for the processing
of public housing demolition applications by local housing
authorities.
With a steady growth in production and exports, fair trade in
Argentina is proving that socially and environmentally
sustainable practices can be much more than a refuge from
external crises.
If the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) had 1.28 billion dollars it could
help 97 million people around the world.
A radical political group based in a working class
neighbourhood of the Venezuelan capital has sparked a furore
by publishing photographs of children from the community, with
their faces partially hidden, brandishing AR-15 assault
rifles.
The rise of emerging economies in Latin America is an
opportunity to improve strategies for fighting neglected
illnesses and increase the region's contribution to the global
struggle against them, says the regional director of an
organisation devoted to this purpose.
Through its ties with Venezuela and other nations in Latin
America, Iran is building an anti-U.S. alliance in the Western
Hemisphere that poses a direct, imminent threat to the United
States, an influential U.S. lawmaker said Thursday.
When a financial crisis threatened the existence of Africa's oldest community
station, Bush Radio, an outpouring of sympathy and appeals went viral on social
networking sites like Twitter and Facebook. In the end, it was this outspoken
support that showed financial backers that the station was worth saving.
In an uncharacteristically lively election campaign in this nation of five million
people, Finns head for the polls in a second round of voting Sunday to elect a
new president.
If the way to a man's heart is through his stomach, then the path to peace between India and Pakistan may lie in the commonalities in their cultures and cuisines.
The black market for foreign exchange and fuel is booming in the midst of an
acute scarcity in Malawi. The shortage is so severe that even the Consumer
Association of Malawi, an influential consumer rights body, has come out in
support of the black market.
An accident at an ultra-deepwater drilling platform spilled
160 barrels of crude off the coast of Brazil this week,
deepening fears about safety in this new frontier of oil and
gas production.
Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff's visit to Cuba served to
further strengthen bilateral relations between the two
countries, leverage the South American giant's investments in
the Caribbean island, and deepen political ties.
As UN Women celebrated its first birthday, its executive
director Michelle Bachelet stressed that political upheveal
and shrinking budgets are no excuse to push back the hard-won
gains made by the women's movement globally.
U.S. Defence Secretary Leon Panetta's surprise announcement
Wednesday that U.S. troops will phase out their combat role in
Afghanistan by mid-2013 is drawing mixed reactions, as well as
a fair bit of confusion, from both critics and supporters of
the 11-year-old war here.
The political heavy hitters were all there at a key Security
Council meeting early this week to decide on the future of
beleaguered Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
While Indian retailers are losing sleep over the possible
entrance of multinationals like Walmart into the dense South
Asian consumer market, very little thought has been given to
the Indian small farmer, who stands to lose even more at the
hands of the world's biggest commercial food retailer.