CHICAGO, Illinois, US, Dic 03 (IPS) - A group of young people walk down the streets of Chicago, broad grins on their faces. They have good reason to be happy: the ovations received by their repertoire of Latin American music when they played in the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela still echo in their ears.

UNITED NATIONS, Dic 03 (IPS) - When the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) launched its inaugural meeting on "Global Education for All" last month, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon warned that most developing nations are likely to miss the 2015 deadline to achieve universal primary education.

DOHA, Qatar, Dic 03 (IPS) - Beatrice Yeung, a youth delegate at the United Nations climate talks, travelled all the way from Hong Kong to Doha, Qatar to bring her generation's message that "we will live in the world you are creating for us."

HAVANA, Dic 03 (IPS) - Midiam Lobaina describes herself as a "Christian militant" who takes a feminist reading of the Bible to workshops and religious services around Cuba, to discuss gender equality and a culture of peace.

DOHA, Dic 03 (IPS) - The new Green Climate Fund to help developing countries cope with climate change may one day have a bigger budget than the World Bank. At the moment, however, the Fund is empty.

SARMEEN, Syria, Dic 03 (IPS) - As the death toll in Syria tops 40,000 and some 400,000 have taken refuge beyond the country's borders, a dearth of funding for civilian projects in areas under Free Syrian control risks undermining efforts to keep inhabitants united and the limited lines of communication flowing.

JERUSALEM, Dic 03 (IPS) - When it voted to upgrade Palestinian statehood status from "observer entity" to "non-member observer state", the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) wanted the enduring Middle East conflict to come full circle. But it failed to take into account the Israeli Prime Minister's opposition to a state of Palestine that isn't on his terms.

HARGEISA, Dic 03 (IPS) - As Somalia starts to emerge from its quagmire of instability and chaos, 20 years of relative peace and stability are starting to pay dividends for its close neighbour Somaliland, as this November it struck its first major oil deal since seceding from Somalia in 1991.

SOFIA, Bulgaria, Dic 02 (IPS) - Governments in Eastern Europe and Central Asia are being urged to end the institutionalisation of babies as more than 15,000 children a year in the region continue to be subjected to a practice experts say often leaves them physically and mentally scarred for life.

TAIPEI, Dic 02 (IPS) - Taiwan civic reform, journalist and labour organisations have mobilised against the acquisition of the large Next Media (Taiwan) group by tycoons linked with China. They say this threatens Taiwan's news freedom and even the survival of its democratic political system.