News headlines in March 2011, page 19

The African Development Bank says it is concerned about administrative delays holding up progress on the Green Climate Fund - one of the most significant achievements from the Cancun climate talks.

Local and foreign investment on the African continent is slowly moving away from agriculture and raw materials to manufacturing, services, communication and tourism, despite poor infrastructure and low skills levels.

Palestinians are calling for boycotts against Israeli products and companies. But in the Gaza Strip -- at the heart of the Israeli occupation -- it is often impossible for residents to follow their own call to action.

When the international community commemorates World Water Day next week, perhaps it should ponder the words of U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who once remarked he does not expect people world over to stop what they are doing and observe a moment of silence, come Mar. 22.

U.S. President Barack Obama issued an ultimatum to Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi on Friday, less than 24 hours after the United Nations Security Council passed a resolution to 'take all necessary measures' short of deploying an 'occupation force'.

Why do we have nuclear power despite all of its dangers for current and future generations? There is a simple reason. Nuclear power plants are highly profitable for a few, at the expense of other people's safety. Electricity from a nuclear power station can be cut off if people do not pay their bills, but energy from the sun collected on house roofs cannot be cut off. It makes people independent. The nuclear lobby does not want that, writes Dietrich Fischer, Academic Director of the World Peace Academy,Director of the TRANSCEND University Press, author of "Nonmilitary Aspects of Security" and "Preventing War in the Nuclear Age."

Cambodia’s fledgling domestic worker export industry continues to come under scrutiny amid allegations that women have been forcibly detained in privately run training centres.

The United States says its relations with Latin America must be 'an equal partnership' - a new vision or, at least, a new discourse that will have a chance to take more concrete shape during U.S. President Barack Obama's visit to Brazil this weekend.

Tensions are running high in Haiti as dueling campaigns for the presidency enter overdrive in their final days, and Jean- Bertrand Aristide, a popular former president, returns from a seven-year exile in South Africa.

Amidst recrudescence of tension on this critical front, the Israeli army is hoping to gain the technological upper hand in missile combat with 'Palestinian militants' by equipping one of its most sophisticated tanks with a miniature missile defence system.