'We are facing a very alarming situation, and solutions are urgently needed,' said Cecilia Sepúlveda, the dean of the University of Chile medical school, after it was announced that 4,200 people a year in this country die from causes directly attributable to smog and other kinds of pollution.

Over the past six months, governments in two influential Caribbean trade bloc member states — Jamaica and Guyana - have floated political test balloons on the question of whether colonial-era laws criminalising homosexuality should be amended in keeping with trends in most Western states.

When Hussain Akhlaqi (17) arrived on Australian shores 11 months ago from Indonesia, on a boat carrying over 100 other asylum seekers, he was immediately placed in the Christmas Island immigration detention centre. Ali Mohammadi (17) from Afghanistan, and Mujtaba Ahmadi (18) from Iran, also endured a risky journey by sea only to meet the same fate.

When Jose Chiburre was a boy growing up in Mozambique, he would often challenge his friends to a swim across the Incomati River. That was in the 1970s, when the river was 300 metres wide in the dry season: today, the race would be over before it begins.

Access to justice for women who suffer sexual violence in Central America and southern Mexico remains limited despite the high incidence of rape and other crimes, of which underage girls are the main victims, experts say.

The student movement that erupted in February following the announcement of a 75-percent rise in university tuition fees is now becoming a violent struggle for democracy in Quebec.

Amnesty International, the London based rights group,is appealing to the international community to put an end to the humanitarian disaster in South Sudan. The disaster has been caused by refugees who are fleeing from Southern Kordofan and Blue Nile regions in Sudan.

Cities in the North and South of Lebanon have witnessed a rise in the number of attacks targeting bars and alcohol vendors, a relatively new phenomenon in a country famous for its vibrant club scene.

The World Bank this week released its new environment strategy for the next decade, 2012 through 2022, saying the policy framework was crafted in response to 'calls from governments and the private sector for new approaches to development in light of unprecedented environmental challenges'.

While reports of two mass killings in Syria by pro-regime forces in the past week have increased pressure on President Barack Obama to intervene more directly in support of the opposition, his administration appears determined to avoid any military involvement.