Approximately 300 Cuban and 30 Venezuelan volunteer 'brigadistas' have departed Ecuador, marking the end of the first phase of the 'Manuela Espejo Mission,' conducting a complete study of disabilities in this country over the past year and a half.

Argentina, Chile, Costa Rica, Uruguay and even Brazil are close to being able to provide a universal basic income to all citizens, which is the way to make cash transfers an effective tool in fighting inequality, according to Martín Hopenhayn.

As the World Bank returns to the big dam business with the inauguration of Laos’ largest hydropower project, it is coming under the scrutiny of familiar adversaries: green groups and grassroots activists.

As China’s economy continues to soar, many experts here remain only cautiously optimistic about the country’s future growth, confident that its fundamentals remain strong but concerned that a real estate bubble and rising inflation could slow economic growth.

The dominant theme that emerged in U.S. media coverage of the first round of Wikileaks diplomatic cables last week was that Arab regimes in the Gulf - led by Saudi Arabia - shared Israel's view that Iran's nuclear programme had to be stopped by military force, if necessary.

These are awkward times for the men in the middle in Cameroon's Western Highlands. A profitable niche buying produce cheaply on farms, and supplying farmers with seed and fertiliser at premium prices has been shattered by the sound of a cellphone ringing.

What some people view as modest but real progress in the climate change talks, now in their second week in this southeastern Mexican resort city, others see as no more than smokescreens or 'false solutions.'

Recent revelations of domestic worker abuse may be grotesque and horrifying, but they are only the most visible aspect of the many difficulties faced by these predominantly female workers, activists say.

'We want real compensation,' said Luis Nascimento de Freitas, a fisherman from Vila Teotonio, a ramshackle town on the banks of the Madeira River that will be flooded when the Santo Antonio hydroelectric plant is completed.

Last week's release of 900 pages of U.S. government documents dealing with the implementation of the nation's primary surveillance law suggests that the government has been systematically violating the privacy rights of U.S. citizens.