The specter of a swine flu pandemic has driven home the urgent need for more rapid and effective responses to a wide range of public health threats. But in order to respond more effectively, we need to create a more open system for the exchange of vital health information and research across sectors, disciplines, geographic, economic and cultural boundaries. In a world of increasingly global emergencies, we need all hands on deck, including the patients and publics most affected, writes Mark Sommer, host of the award-winning, internationally syndicated radio program, A World of Possibilities

Not long ago the people on this planet lived without the anguish of insecurity because they assumed that insecurity was the natural state of things, for everyone, rich and poor, powerful and weak. Now, and especially since the end of the Cold War and September 11, the landscape is different. The world lives in a state of tension and fear, writes Joaquin Roy, ''Jean Monnet'' professor and Director of the European Union Centre of the University of Miami.

An outside-the-box approach is needed for the worsening problems of Afghanistan and Pakistan. US official policy in its war in Afghanistan is to combat Al Qaeda and make sure there are no further attacks on the USA from their safe havens. Yet, on his recent visit to the US, Afghan President Hamid Karzai said that there are no Al Qaeda members in Afghanistan. General David Petraeus, US Central Command Commander, also stated that no Al Qaeda members are in Afghanistan, writes Hazel Henderson, author of Beyond Globalization, Ethical Markets: Growing the Green Economy and other books.

If we wish to create a sustainable economic order for the 21st century, we will have to go beyond that which existed in the past. Because of this, we will have to base our actions on those tenets that have the broadest and clearest support and legitimacy in the eyes of society: human rights and the commitment to tear down the walls that prevent the equal access of all people, writes Jose Graziano da Silva, Regional Representative of the UN Food and Agricultural Organisation for Latin America and the Caribbean.

While the world could probably agree on basic objectives for our agricultural systems, we still disagree on what global integration could bring to this process, writes Pascal Lamy, Director-General of the World Trade Organisation (WTO).

The shaky amateur video shows the leader of Nepal's Maoist party, Prachanda, boasting how he tricked the UN into thinking his army was 35,000 strong when it had only 7,000 guerrillas and admitting he lied to everyone about his commitment to democracy and the peace process, and that his real goal is total control of the army and the state, writes Kunda Dixit, editor and publisher of the Nepali Times newspaper in Kathmandu.

The sucre is the common currency that Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez has proposed for the countries of the Bolivarian Alternative for the Peoples of the Andes, an alliance comprised of Bolivia, Honduras, Nicaragua, Cuba, Venezuela, and now Dominica and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, write Joaquin Roy, ''Jean Monnet'' professor and Director of the European Union Centre of the University of Miami, and Maria Lorca is Associate Director of the European Union Centre of the University of Miami.

The cobbler of Iraq, the man who threw his shoes at Bush, was sentenced to three years in prison. Shouldn't he be given an award instead? writes Eduardo Galeano, Uruguayan writer and journalist and author of ''The Open Veins of Latin America'', 'Memories of Fire'' and "Mirrors/An Almost Universal History".

While the first good news on the economic crisis is arriving from the US, Barack Obama continues to fight on all fronts, with rigour and courage. In contrast, in the European Union there is a marked lack of responsible leaders, writes Mario Soares, ex-president and ex-prime minister of Portugal.

Since a military junta seized control of Burma in 1988, the West's response has been to isolate it. The regime has refused to implement political and economic reforms. It's time for us to change our approach, writes Erik Solheim, Norwegian Minister of the Environment and International Development.