Yandi Condado and a small group of farmers in the southern Mexican state of Puebla decided a few years ago to process their peanuts as an economic boost -- and to defend this traditional crop against the advances of more profitable options.

The United States is putting pressure on Pakistan to release jailed American Raymond Davis, who has confessed to killing two men. But some Pakistanis want their government to demand concessions from the U.S. in exchange for Davis's freedom.

Egypt's armed forces, the de facto rulers of the country since last week’s ouster of President Hosni Mubarak, have already met several longstanding demands of the opposition, including the suspension of the constitution and dissolution of parliament. Some critics, however, say more must be done if the Mubarak regime’s authoritarian structure is to be satisfactorily replaced with a democratic one.

Bahrain, unlike Egypt with its 83 million people, has a population of only just over a million. And so when protesters settled down to sleep at a central roundabout in capital Manama, the police swooped down and manage to clear them away.

Australia has been urged to place human rights before national interest in its allocation of foreign aid, following a review of the country’s donor programme by an independent U.N. expert. Wrapping up his first mission to Australia last weekend, Cephas Lumina, a specialist designated by the U.N. Human Rights Council, released a statement recommending the government develop a 'consistent approach' to its international development work.

While finance ministers of the 20 major economies are meeting in Paris this weekend, France’s Minister of Agriculture Bruno Le Maire, announced Thursday that a crucial meeting of G20 agriculture ministers will take place in Paris in June 2011.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton Thursday expressed 'deep concerns' about the deadly attack on hundreds of sleeping anti-government protestors carried out by Bahrain's security forces at a central square in the capital, Manama, Wednesday night.

'We want to shout out to the world, and no one will be able to keep us silent: forced displacement is still happening in Colombia, which is why we are asking for solidarity. We aren't terrorists, we aren't criminals; we are farmers whose dignity and rights have been stolen from us.'

As the military and the police try to violently suppress demonstrations spreading across Bahrain, Yemen, Libya, Iraq and Iran, a usually reticent U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki- moon is taking a hard line against the oppressive authoritarian regimes in the politically volatile Middle East - and specifically against unrelenting leaders cracking down on protesters.

At least one person died and dozens were injured Thursday in Iraqi Kurdistan's second largest city as angry protestors attacked the local headquarters of one of the two ruling Kurdish parties, while an opposition building was set ablaze in the other major Kurdish city.