UNITED NATIONS, Sep 20 (IPS) - The United Nations is considered one of the world's most secular institutions, with 193 member states representing peoples of different faiths and cultures and professing religious and agnostic beliefs.

MBABANE, Sep 20 (IPS) - As Swaziland goes to the polls for the second and final round of voting in its general elections on Sept. 20, giveaways has become the order of the day in this southern African nation.

TARAWA, Kiribati, Sep 20 (IPS) - Scientists say dredging, building causeways and natural climate variations are largely responsible for the flooding events that many officials here point to as evidence that climate change-induced sea-level rise is shrinking and destroying their tropical Pacific island.

ATHENS, Sep 20 (IPS) - While the relentless war in Syria continuously adds to the number of refugees travelling west to Europe, Greece is fast becoming a nation they are choosing to avoid.

WASHINGTON, Sep 19 (IPS) - Member governments, security companies and civil society organisations on Thursday formally created the first international body to be tasked with the monitoring and oversight of private military contractors' adherence to human rights standards and international law.

UNITED NATIONS, Sep 19 (IPS) - Western analysts all too often take a distorted and reductionist approach to the conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), says Kai Koddenbrock, who analysed more than 50 policy papers for a study published in the journal International Peacekeeping in November 2012.

NEW YORK, Sep 19 (IPS) - When U.S. President Barack Obama tried to drum up momentum for airstrikes in Syria to punish and deter the use of chemical weapons, he failed to gain much of a following.

ACCRA, Sep 19 (IPS) - Ghana's economy registered 7.1 percent growth last year but 23-year-old Jennifer Esi Avemee has had difficulty securing a permanent job since graduating in 2011. "It's very stressful," she laments. "It's very hard to sustain yourself."

KOLKATA, Sep 19 (IPS) - When the police finally arrested a man this month in the Nepali capital for the murder of a teenager nine years ago, it became a matter of life and death for Nanda Prasad Adhikari and his wife Ganga Maya.

WASHINGTON, Sep 19 (IPS) - The United States needs to phase down its drug war and tighten the reins on its cooperation with local militaries and police in Latin America, according to a new report released here Wednesday by three influential think tanks.