UNITED NATIONS, Sep 14 (IPS) - Conflicts of interest can be viewed as drivers of societies and human development, although recourse to violence has destroyed millions of people’s lives and leaves generations wounded for decades and even centuries.

WASHINGTON, Sep 13 (IPS) - While U.S. or Israeli air strikes may delay the building by Iran of a nuclear weapon, they are unlikely to prevent it altogether and could well prove counter-productive, according to a major new report signed by nearly three dozen former top U.S. foreign-policy makers, military officers, and independent experts.

WASHINGTON, Sep 13 (IPS) - Lt. Gen. William B. Caldwell, the former commander of NATO’s training mission in Afghanistan, denied to a U.S. Congressional panel Wednesday that he had cited the impact on Congressional elections in opposing the timing of a request for an investigation of high-level Afghan military corruption and its impact on neglect of patients at the Afghan National Military Hospital (NMH) two years ago.

UNITED NATIONS, Sep 13 (IPS) - While the global community made progress in reducing under-five child mortality to below seven million per year, it risks failing to reach the global targets set for 2015 if action is not scaled up, according to a new report by the U.N. children's agency UNICEF.

BOGOTA, Sep 13 (IPS) - What are the obstacles to peace in war-torn Colombia? When government and rebel negotiators asked themselves this question, they concluded that one problem was that the media in this country had turned “peace” itself into a dirty word.

UXBRIDGE, Canada, Sep 13 (IPS) - Growing water shortages in many countries are a major threat to global security and development and should be a top priority at the U.N. Security Council, a panel of experts said in a new report.

UNITED NATIONS, Sep 13 (IPS) - Following the revolution that culminated in the ouster of longtime President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in January 2011, Tunisia embarked on a transitional justice process with the intention of addressing the gross human rights violations of the dictatorship.

CONAKRY, Sep 13 (IPS) - Kafoumba Koné sounds almost smug. "Our first rice harvest is in, and we're getting ready to plant again," he says, surveying his farm in southeastern Guinea. "Other farmers who have not yet tried NERICA are still preparing for their only harvest of the year."

PESHAWAR, Pakistan, Sep 13 (IPS) - Political parties are stepping up opposition to the U.S. drone strikes and a planned operation to cleanse border areas of militants.

PHNOM PENH, Sep 13 (IPS) - Public health experts in Cambodia are unenthused by reports of trials for a dengue vaccine conducted in neighbouring Thailand, saying it will be too costly for those who need it most – children in the least developed and developing countries.