IRIN – humanitarian news and analysis DAKAR, 28 May 2008 (IRIN) – The global food and fuel price crisis presents a “strategic opportunity†to West African states to become more food-secure according to agricultural analysts, but they will only achieve… Continue Reading
By Julio Godoy BONN, May 30 (IPS) – When some multinational companies dump chemicals into the sea, they call it ‘ocean fertilisation’. This practice is near the top of the agenda at the UN conference on biological diversity in Bonn.… Continue Reading
By Paul Reynolds World affairs correspondent, BBC News website Five states bordering on the potentially energy-rich Arctic Ocean have met in Greenland in an attempt to head off a new “gold rush” in the high north. They agreed to settle… Continue Reading
Interview with Flora Igoki Terah NAIROBI, May 29 (IPS) – On Sep. 7 last year, as she walked to her home, parliamentary candidate Flora Igoki Terah was attacked and tortured by a gang of five men. Terah’s case is one… Continue Reading
Shashi Tharoor The Guardian, John McCain wants to create a new alliance to circumvent the UN. We mustn’t let this idea gain consensus in Washington Tuesday May 27 2008 -Amid the continuing brouhaha about issues of race and gender in… Continue Reading
By Jonathan Wheatley in São Paulo May 26 2008 Brazil’s new environment minister takes office on Tuesday in the middle of a spat over an apparent recent increase in deforestation in the Amazon region. The dispute concerns satellite data on… Continue Reading
By Tom Barry Are Americans willing to pay for the intensifying crackdown on immigrants? The Bush administration and Congress are fueling an increasingly hard-line immigration policy with seemingly unlimited federal funding. The Department of Homeland Security, which in 2003 became… Continue Reading
By Zoltán Dujisin PRAGUE, May 24 (IPS) – The EU seems to be backing nuclear energy as the response to global warming and gas dependency, but civic groups warn that safety and waste processing should be preconditions for the industry’s… Continue Reading
ANSA Detainees protest over death of Tunisian (ANSA) – Turin, May 26 – Detainees at a migrant holding centre here have launched a hunger strike in protest at the sudden death of a Tunisian man over the weekend, an Italian… Continue Reading
By Michael J. Carter SEATTLE, May 26 (IPS) – Race played a “real” role in deciding who was sentenced to death in hundreds of capital trials over a seven-year period in one Texas county, according to new academic research to… Continue Reading
ANSA Antonio Fazio accused of hindering 2005 bank takeover (ANSA) – Milan, May 23 – Former Bank of Italy governor Antonio Fazio was indicted Friday along with 15 others for a 2005 scandal-hit bank takeover bid. Other high-profile names on… Continue Reading
By Zoltán Dujisin PRAGUE, May 23 (IPS) – One result of the Czech media and politicians’ frequent warnings of the dangers of Islamic terrorism has been a growing Islamophobia. Attitudes towards Muslims are said to have worsened following the Sep.… Continue Reading
IRIN BANGKOK, 21 May 2008 (IRIN) – John Holmes, the UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, has expressed caution over the prospects of greater humanitarian access to cyclone-affected Myanmar.
By Mario Osava RIO DE JANEIRO, May 22 (IPS) – Brazil is a world leader in agriculture and on several environmental issues, but it will find it hard to reconcile both fronts, judging by the many battles lost by former… Continue Reading
From The Economist print edition May 20th 2008 The lessons of earlier Asian nation-building efforts NEARLY seven years after the toppling of the Taliban, Afghanistan’s future is still up for grabs. Despite tens of thousands of foreign troops, and billions… Continue Reading
By Claudia Ciobanu BUCHAREST, May (IPS) – A Roma ghetto in Ponticelli neighbourhood of Naples, Italy, was burnt down May 14 by locals angry over a reported attempt by a Roma young woman to kidnap a baby. The incident shows… Continue Reading
By William Fisher NEW YORK, May 20 (IPS) – Key elements of the George W. Bush administration’s anti-terrorist detention policies appear to be unraveling, according to human rights and legal advocates. In the past two weeks alone, a military judge… Continue Reading
BBC NEWS The EU has unveiled a plan for reform of its Common Agricultural Policy, the rural payments system that costs more than 40bn euros (£32bn) a year. The proposals are aimed at making farmers more responsive to market forces… Continue Reading
Carmelo Ruiz Marrero First-generation biofuels like ethanol and biodiesel debuted on the world stage as the solution to the fossil fuel trap. Soon evidence began to mount indicating that the solution may well prove to be just a new set… Continue Reading
By Aileen Kwa GENEVA, May 19 (IPS) – As WTO negotiations pick up this week, some developing countries are in growing doubt that a deal liberalising their economies further could help them cope with the food crisis. IPS spoke to… Continue Reading
