UXBRIDGE, Canada, Mar 19 (IPS) - As usual, midtown Manhattan is packed with whisper-quiet cars and trams while thousands walk the streets listening to the birds of spring sing amongst the gleaming, grime-free skyscrapers in the crystal-clear morning air.

JERUSALEM, Mar 19 (IPS) - U.S. President Barack Obama arrives in Israel on Wednesday, his first destination abroad of his second term, to pay a visit to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu whose own second consecutive term will have started only 48 hours beforehand. No wonder that the true purpose of the U.S. President's visit is defined as reaching out to the Israeli people.

MUMBAI, Mar 19 (IPS) - I recently spent a day in Mumbai with the man who arguably has done more than anyone else in the world to save millions of lives of people with AIDS and other diseases.

MINAMISANRIKU, Japan, Mar 19 (IPS) - As a survivor of Japan's deadliest tsunami in living memory, Shun Ito dedicates his mornings to evoking stories of heroism that helped to save lives in this port town that was decimated on that fateful March afternoon two years ago.

NZARA, South Sudan, Mar 19 (IPS) - Sungu Mizele, a Congolese national living in Yambio, in South Sudan's Western Equatoria state, earns a living selling the fruit and vegetables that she grows in her backyard, at the local town market. On average, she earns nine dollars a day. But on a good day, when she has fresh supplies, she can earn up to 31 dollars.

WASHINGTON, Mar 19 (IPS) - Food safety advocates, environmentalists and health professionals here are engaging in a fervent last-minute campaign to highlight a controversial legislative amendment they say would gut the ability of both the judiciary and the federal government to regulate genetically modified agricultural products.

WASHINGTON, Mar 19 (IPS) - With Barack Obama set to travel on his first trip to Israel as president, expectations for a major breakthrough on the long-stalled Israeli-Palestinian "peace process" are low to nonexistent.

RIO DE JANEIRO, Mar 18 (IPS) - Venezuela's economic challenges, more than the uncertainty over who will succeed late president Hugo Chávez, could threaten the oil diplomacy he practiced in the region.

CARACAS, Mar 18 (IPS) - Russian state oil firm Rosneft and Venezuela's PDVSA (Petróleos de Venezuela S.A.) have agreed to form a partnership to exploit an oilfield with estimated reserves of 40 billion barrels, strengthening the alliance between the two countries.

GENEVA, Mar 18 (IPS) - The current growth model is not sustainable. Neither the green economy nor alternative sources of energy can prevent global warming. Solutions will come from concerted actions at the local and national levels, from the adoption of instruments and practices borrowed from other disciplines like peacebuilding, and from the move to a "no-waste economy", according to experts here.