The Traditional Courts Bill currently under discussion in South Africa’s parliament and due to be enacted by the end of 2012 could undermine the basic rights of some of the country’s most vulnerable inhabitants: the 12 million women living in remote rural communities across the country.

Kofi Annan, the U.N.-Arab League envoy to Syria, has called on the country's government to take bold steps to prove its commitment to restoring peace during a visit to Damascus.

Though the current global economic and financial crises are undoubtedly devastating much of the world, they present the perfect opportunity for remodeling our economic system, according to participants at the ninth annual Terra Futura (Future Earth) exhibition of ‘good practices’ in social, economic and environmental sustainability held here from May 25-27.

The Argentine pension system, renationalised in 2008, now covers more than 90 percent of people of retirement age, the highest coverage in Latin America. But analysts are concerned about its sustainability.

A financial crisis, clashes between coaches, a case of shoplifting — forget all the problems. Last month, Israel’s judokas won four medals at the European Championship. They now have their eyes set on London 2012.

A group of women working in a tree-shaded nursery in this arid part of southern Tamil Nadu state is helping to manage India’s very first biomass energy plantation.

When 12 Colombian soldiers were killed by FARC insurgents a stone's throw away from the northern border with Venezuela, the consequences included military cooperation that reinforces the political, diplomatic and trade-related links that have developed over the past two years between Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos and Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez.

It is in our own interest to understand the causes of violence so we can prevent it in the future, writes Johan Galtung, professor of Peace Studies and rector of the TRANSCEND Peace University.

In this analysis, the author writes that critiques of Israel's disastrous current foreign policy, which advocates an attack on Iran that would plunge the whole region into a mutually destructive war, have been labelled "anti-Semitism". But who is a better friend to a person walking blindfolded towards an abyss: the one who says, "Go right ahead" or the one who says, "Stop, turn around, you are in grave danger!"

A young professional in India’s burgeoning IT hub Gurgaon, a major satellite city of national capital New Delhi, Manideepa Moitra works as a software content writer not just to make a living but to secure a career in the demanding sector that catapulted India on the global outsourcing industry map.

The United States has simultaneously some of the highest quality and most troubled educational systems in the world. The dichotomy is inspiring countries like Malaysia to learn from examples in the United States in order to help them figure out how to turn the worst into the best.