Life-saving medicines could become too costly for the world's poor after a new trade agreement between the European Union and India comes into effect, public health activists have warned.

Europe's appetite for renewable energy and a shifting tide in domestic energy policies could turn North Africa into major exporter of solar power by the end of the decade.

'I don’t feel any fear. My parents do. They instruct me almost every day to stay away from crowded places,' said Afaq Ali, a Grade 1 student in this capital city of the militancy-wracked Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in Pakistan.

The 3.75 billion dollar World Bank loan for a new a coal-fired power station in South Africa is essential for economic growth in neighbouring low income countries, according to Dr Mohamed Abdelrahman, energy advisor for the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD), a programme of the African Union.

Environment ministers from Brazil, South Africa, India and China are sceptical that a legally-binding agreement on climate change will be reached in Cancun, Mexico in December.

Eight faith-based organisations have set up a pilot project in the Democratic Republic of Congo to support the fight against malaria.

Mari Cat, an economist by profession, thinks nothing of selling meat, bread and apple juice at a stall in the ‘Slow Food’ market in this central Romanian town.

The late Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping was believed to have said that China should 'hide our capacities, bide our time, and never be in the limelight.'

Against the backdrop of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund's spring meetings this weekend, numerous groups have chimed in on the need for and direction of a new World Bank energy strategy.

A Turkish proverb says 'coffee should be black as Hell, strong as death, and sweet as love.' But growers of the more expensive arabica coffee beans in Mexico are more worried about a government plan to promote the cheaper robusta beans than about poetic maxims.