Promises made by the European Union (EU) on increasing aid to poor countries will be broken this year, according to new data.

As a bill against sexual harassment of women inches closer to becoming a law in Pakistan, it is drawing fire from male politicians and conservative groups that have called it anywhere from un-Islamic to one that would lead women astray.

Kim Tae-Jin remembers shuddering in fear when he arrived at Yoduk Prison, a notorious detention centre in North Korea, in 1998. 'First, a fear of brutal uncertainty struck me. I doubted if I would remain alive there for long,' Kim recalled.

The deep economic, fiscal, and trade crises of several Mediterranean countries in the euro zone that is threatening monetary stability in Europe with the possibility of contagion spreading to developing countries, say studies.

'Migrant workers are not aliens,' sang a local music band here called Paradon. 'Any kind of work that Thais don’t do, they do it for Thais. No matter how dirty, they do it for Thai. Which job is dangerous, they do. They do it for Thais. Though it is a demeaning job, they do it. They do it for Thais.'

Reiterating accusations of Iranian interference in Iraq's internal affairs, the U.S. ambassador to Iraq said Wednesday that he was in '100 percent agreement' with remarks by the top U.S. commander in Iraq regarding Iran's involvement in a highly controversial decision that eventually barred over 140 candidates from running in Iraq's parliamentary elections next month.

Just over a year after it was opened for signature, an international treaty banning cluster bombs received the final two ratifications it needed to become international law Tuesday.

Brigitte Kafui Adjamagbo-Johnson, head of the Convention démocratique des peuples africains (Democratic Convention of African Peoples, CDPA) opposition party is Togo's first female presidential candidate.

In a measure that was delayed by supply problems, this year Argentina is beginning to require that gasoline be mixed with ethanol and diesel fuel with biodiesel, at a proportion of five percent, to possibly reach 20 percent by 2015.

Human rights defenders and analysts in El Salvador suspect that death squads were responsible for two highly coordinated attacks in which 12 young men were killed this month.