A primary topic of discussion at a weeklong international water conference here can best be summed up in two words: 'dirty water'.

After weeks of rumours sparked by the leaking of a draft World Bank position paper on so-called land grabs in poor countries, the international financial institution has officially released its report on the surge in farmland purchases and leasing which have elicited controversy for over two years.

Damián López, of Argentina, has been riding his bicycle the length of the Americas for the past three years. His mission? In addition to completing the long journey, he wants to shine the spotlight on children who are at risk due to violence or abandonment.

The U.N. Security Council is considering leveraging sanctions against the perpetrators of the mass rapes that occurred last month in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) following a meeting held on the recent violence Tuesday.

Latin American activists who want to call attention to mining developments located in border areas will gather in Chile to 'pass judgement' on projects they regard as detrimental to local communities, the environment and national security.

Faced with mounting criticism because of its expulsions of Roma, or Gypsies, the French government is trying to gain allies in what it calls the 'battle' against undocumented immigration and people-trafficking networks.

The European Union’s decision to suspend trade preferences for Sri Lankan exports may have finally come into force, but the island nation is not budging an inch on any of the powerful bloc’s recommendations on its controversial human rights record.

Depending on who one talks to, Mt Mantalingahan is either a treasure trove of untapped minerals lying underneath the earth’s crust, or a biodiversity hotspot that is home to some of the worlds rarest and threatened animals.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) is urging countries in Asia to remain vigilant about the spread of the H1N1 influenza virus, which the international body declared was no longer a pandemic a month ago.

Leaders of some three dozen mainstream U.S. religious denominations Tuesday condemned what many commentators have called a rising tide of Islamophobia touched off by the recent controversy over the construction of a Muslim community centre in Lower Manhattan, two blocks from the site of the twin World Trade Centre towers destroyed in the 9/11 terrorist attacks.