A European Union (EU) aid programme tasked with nurturing the private sector in Africa has become the focus of high-level diplomatic discussions after almost half of its staff were abruptly dismissed.

The challenge of the 21st century is to transform agriculture into a good administrator of biodiversity and reverse its destructive capacity, without restricting its mission to feed a growing world population, said Achim Steiner, executive director of the United Nations Environment Programme.

He fishes by night and sells his catch by day. He's the breadwinner for his family of six. Maliko Malombe is nine years old.

Eighteen-year-old David Kimenyi* is sure he infected his girlfriend with HIV. They had unprotected sex many times, even after he discovered he was HIV-positive.

Journalists and human rights activists in Mexico are frantically seeking a mechanism to protect them from attacks related to their work, but the state has been slow to respond. The Colombian model might provide a solution.

The sick, injured and stressed people of Port au Prince are unlikely to be impressed by the small army of reconstruction contractors and development experts who are preparing to descend on Haiti. The reason? They've seen it all before.

The impact of the global recession may still be around, but Chinese communities all over Asia are bent on letting the Year of the Tiger come in with a festive, prosperous roar on Sunday.

'Excuse me, I forgot my glasses, could you tell me what that sign says?' This was one of the ruses commonly used by Juan Gómez, who was too embarrassed to admit that at the age of 77, he had never learned to read or write.

A British court has ordered the publication of previously secret information that appears to reveal the UK government's complicity with the U.S. in the torture of Binyam Mohamed, a British resident who was imprisoned by the U.S. at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

On the one-month anniversary of the devastating earthquake of Jan. 12, Haitians continue to perish from a variety of causes, including death by red tape: they fall between the cracks of a still poorly-coordinated aid effort.