Iraqis promised development with the ouster of Saddam Hussein and the arrival of the U.S. are now suffering lack of development as never before. And where it hurts every moment is through the collapse of power supply.

The middle of September marked the beginning of Meskerem, the first month, the beginning of a new year, just after the girls dance in Tigray to mark the end of the rains and the coming of the summer in a ceremony called Ashenda. Children in Mekelle and other parts of this region in northern Ethiopia had added reason to rejoice.

An aggressive public health and information programme is giving Sri Lanka a key weapon in its battle against the deadly dengue fever, bringing it under control after hitting epidemic proportions in the last two years.

Cambodia’s partial success in reducing child mortality rates has exposed a fault line of inequity, one that underscores the advantage that the country’s urban population has had over the rural poor.

As world leaders convened Monday for the first day of a summit dedicated to resuscitate efforts to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the question of how to finance countries' acceleration efforts looms large.

The administration of U.S. President Barack Obama has announced it will provide an additional 75 million dollars in food aid to help Pakistan cope with floods that have affected about one-fifth of the country - including some 20 million people - since they began in July.

Civil society groups are challenging a six-month authorisation granted aluminium giant BHP Billiton to emit potentially dangerous fumes from its Mozal smelter into the air without treating them first.

As more than 140 world leaders began a three-day anti-poverty summit meeting Monday, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon looked far beyond the 2015 deadline for sustainable development the world is desperately in need of.

'I am not pessimistic, but I am realistic. Under present conditions and the prevailing system of world government, the Millennium Development Goals simply cannot be achieved,' Cuban Deputy Foreign Minister Abelardo Moreno said in an interview with IPS.

South-South cooperation is set to be a key issue during the three-day summit beginning today that will bring together some 140 world leaders to reaffirm their commitment to achieving the U.N. Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015.