NEW DELHI, Sep 16 (IPS) - Tarzie Vittachi, a Sri Lankan journalist who in his final years was the bemused occupant of a high United Nations office, once summed up with his characteristic terse wit a central truth about international affairs: "Everything is about something else."

BELGRADE, Sep 16 (IPS) - This year, summer in the Balkans has been nice and warm, leaving behind a land of plenty, and enough food on the table. Except that people are talking about tomatoes "that don't taste as they used to," watermelons that are too watery, cabbages that are hard to slice through and onions that do not sting your eyes.

PESHAWAR, Pakistan, Sep 16 (IPS) - The execution of three Taliban men ordered by the courts has been kept on hold - not because the Pakistani government opposes the death penalty but because it fears the Taliban, political leaders say.

NAIROBI, Sep 15 (IPS) - For decades Zakayo Ekeno has walked Turkana County's arid land, herding his livestock, and his father's before that. Yet nothing about the persistently drought-stricken land in northern Kenya could have given him an indication of the wealth beneath it.

MOGADISHU, Sep 14 (IPS) - Somalia is well-known for being a country torn apart by decades of conflict, by hunger and instability. Today, with fragile stability emerging and a new government in place, there is an opportunity to define a new future of peace, prosperity and justice.??

JIFTLICK, Occupied West Bank, Sep 14 (IPS) - In the Jordan Valley, contrasts are stark. Lush green agricultural fields and fenced-in greenhouses belong to the Israeli settlements that dot the landscape and benefit from the area's abundant water supply on one hand. On the other, Palestinian farmers denied access to their lands and other resources by the Israeli authorities struggle to cultivate the most basic crops and make a living wage.

WASHINGTON, Sep 14 (IPS) - While much of the foreign policy elite here sees the tide of public opposition to U.S. air strikes against Syria that swept over Washington during the past two weeks as evidence of a growing isolationism, veteran pollsters and other analysts say other factors were more relevant.

WASHINGTON, Sep 13 (IPS) - A debate is heating up here over the extent to which U.S. government-facilitated private-sector development investments should be required to take into account how those ventures impact on climate change.

UNITED NATIONS, Sep 13 (IPS) - The upcoming event at the United Nations is being billed as something politically unique.

MEXICO CITY, Sep 13 (IPS) - Non-governmental organisations are urging the United Nations Human Rights Council to demand explanations from the Mexican state for the weak protection it provided its citizens from large-scale spying by the United States.