Ann Wright is a former U.S. diplomat who served in the military for 29 years.

The scant presence of mainstream media organisations at the 9th International Conference on AIDS in Asia and the Pacific (ICAAP) was a sad reflection of how the press was overlooking the big story on HIV/AIDS, say some journalists and development analysts at Asia’s largest meeting on the pandemic.

Carpet weaving has long been a part of Afghanistan's history and culture.

Ten thousands cars, 80,000 tons of beef, 100,000 tons of corn, 18,000 tons of milk, 9,000 tons of beans, 18 million eggs, two million pairs of shoes: Argentina has agreed to 1.1 billion dollars worth of sales to Venezuela, which has decided to stop importing goods from Colombia and get its supplies from other sources.

While the street sweepers clean up huge piles of rubbish in the Tercer Milenio park in the centre of the Colombian capital, young police officers have been posted there to prevent any more people displaced from their rural homes by the armed conflict from trying to camp there.

After 10 years of waiting for secure title to the land they occupy and farm, 35 families in Resende, in the southeastern Brazilian state of Rio de Janeiro, have joined a huge march organised by the Landless Workers Movement (MST) in Brasilia to demand effective agrarian reform.

When U.S. President Barack Obama presides over a meeting of world leaders in the Security Council on Sep. 24, he will provide a high profile political platform for two of the most sensitive issues at the United Nations: nuclear non- proliferation and nuclear disarmament.

In the face of mounting pressure from hawks in Washington and the continued threat of military action from Israel, the Barack Obama Administration has been taking a harder line in its latest pronouncements about Iran.

A letter sent last week by the U.S. State Department has caused many to question the Obama Administration position on reinstating ousted Honduras President Manuel Zelaya.

The Afghan carpet weaving industry is Afghanistan's second largest, behind only agriculture in terms of size and number of people employed.