Roosevelt King, the secretary general of the Barbados Association of Non-Governmental Organisations (BANCO), believes that Caribbean governments have dropped the ball when it comes to their commitment to support the initiatives of civil society.

When the Barack Obama administration unveiled its plan last week for an improvised State Department-controlled army of contractors to replace all U.S. combat troops in Iraq by the end of 2011, critics associated with the U.S. command attacked the transition plan, insisting that the United States must continue to assume that U.S. combat forces should and can remain in Iraq indefinitely.

Come Dec. 31, about 68 countries are expected to complete the arduous task of taking an accurate head count of the number of people living within their geographical borders.

Almost a million South Africans are already on lifelong antiretroviral (ARV) treatment and this number is supposed to triple in the next decade if the South African government keeps to its implementation plan.

The jails in Thailand are filling up with political prisoners, critics say, but how many political dissidents have been incarcerated since a military crackdown on an anti-government protest movement ended on May 19 remains shrouded in mystery.

Turn schools into hate-free zones, and achieving peace in violence-wracked Pakistan may not be far behind.

Residents of Lusaka's George Compound remember the bad old days in the early 1990s, when the area suffered ugly outbreaks of waterborne diseases. Poor management and maintenance caused the water infrastructure in the dense low-income settlement to collapse. People resorted to using water from shallow, easily-contaminated wells.

International media freedom watchdog Reporters Without Borders ranks South Africa's press as among the freest on the continent. Two proposed new measures are drawing unfavourable comparisons to repressive laws in Zimbabwe and Ethiopia.

Brazil has begun a counterattack on the European Union's measures for certifying crop-based fuels, which could lead to import barriers for this energy source coming from the South American giant.

'It's been days without electricity and water. We can't do anything, and it's unbearably hot now.' Abu Fouad, 83, speaks of the power cuts plaguing all of the Gaza Strip.