Netanyahu Suffers From Being Too Popular
“We feel like we finally live a normal life in a normal country,” marvelled a popular radio host. Normalcy – this rare appreciation by Israelis of the privilege to indulge in small talk about the...
View ArticlePeering into the Energy Crystal Ball
Trying to predict the future of the energy sector is like trying to predict the weather in London in an era of global warming. But delegates had a go at it during the three-day World Future Energy...
View ArticleInvestments Go Green in Peru
Peru’s economic growth is largely dependent on its wealth of natural resources, which provide over 50 percent of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) and 80 percent of exports. In view of this...
View ArticleOpposition to U.S. Corporate Political Spending Gains Momentum
Activists and watchdog groups across the United States unveiled a new national push on Thursday to urge policymakers to roll back a controversial 2010 Supreme Court decision that led to the...
View ArticleVote, Violence and Weather Top 2012 U.S. TV News
The presidential election topped news coverage in 2012 from the three major U.S. television networks, closely followed by violence in the United States and Middle East, and extreme weather events in...
View Article‘Green’ Approaches to Water Gaining Ground Around World
After Hurricane Sandy swept through the northeast of the United States late October 2012, millions of New Yorkers were left for days without electricity. But they still had access to drinking water,...
View ArticleIran’s Nuclear Plans Drop Off Israeli Radar
A meeting between Iran and world powers is tentatively set for the month-end in Istanbul, and might constitute a litmus test over a compromise regarding Iran’s uranium enrichment programme. Strangely...
View ArticleU.S. Public Supports UNESCO, Despite Funding Cuts
A national poll revealed that 83 percent of voters in the United States believe it is important for the country to be a member of and provide funding to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and...
View ArticleInjustice Overshadows Growth in Chile
Chile’s positive economic performance in 2012 is not enough to boost President Sebastián Piñera’s waning popularity, as many Chileans believe the country’s much-touted growth does nothing to compensate...
View ArticleCriticising the President no Laughing Matter
Egyptians love to have a good laugh. At every opportunity they rattle off jokes and take jabs at themselves, their society, and – where they dare – their ruler. Former president Hosni Mubarak was a...
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BRICS Invest in National Priorities
A leading South African economist and investment strategist has warned that national priorities may be a more compelling factor influencing business decisions in the BRICS group of countries – Brazil,...
View ArticleTaliban Bullets Target Ballot
The new round of a terror campaign by Taliban militants against liberal politicians and health workers has led to fresh alarm within government and civil society. Many see this as a ploy to postpone...
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Q&A: “There is Nothing Worse Than Holding a Dying Woman in Your Arms”
Despite staggering advances in medical science and technology over the years, women around the world continue to suffer gravely as a result of inadequate access to basic reproductive health services....
View ArticleSome Call for Death – Others Call for Justice
On a chilly Wednesday evening, exactly a month after a young woman was gang-raped and brutalised on a moving bus in New Delhi, hundreds of sombre citizens gathered at a candlelight protest in India’s...
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Coups Become the Norm in Guinea-Bissau
Chronic instability, extreme poverty, drug trafficking and corruption are the tragic lot of Guinea-Bissau, which this year commemorates four decades of independence from Portugal. Emilio Kafft Kosta,...
View ArticleSenegal Seeks to Curb the Baby Boom
A 25-year-old mother of five hailing from Senegal’s eastern Tambacounda province believes that contraceptives damage the womb and cause health problems in the long term, such as a rise in blood...
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Q&A: New Binding Treaty on Mercury Emissions is “Ambitious”
The international community has adopted a binding treaty for reducing emissions of mercury, a poisonous heavy metal that harms human health and the ecosystems on which life depends. Uruguayan diplomat...
View ArticleLaw Makes it Honourable to Kill
“Before she was murdered, she wasn’t alive. We’ll tell her story backwards from her murder to her birth”…so begins a powerful new song by critically acclaimed Palestinian hip-hop band DAM to draw...
View ArticleDominica Sees Geothermal as Key to Carbon-Negative Economy
What a difference a trip makes. Before visiting the French island of Guadeloupe, Alfred Rolle had vocally expressed fears about the possible health effects of a decision to drill geothermal wells in...
View ArticleMalawi’s President Faces a Crisis of Confidence
She has taken a personal pay cut, promised reforms, resumed aid flows from Western donors and put her predecessor’s private jet up for sale. Malawi’s president Joyce Banda seems to be making all the...
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