WASHINGTON, Nov 07 (IPS) - Aggressive creditors and investors are seriously undermining the ability of poor countries to deal sustainably with debt issues, academics and anti-poverty campaigners told a briefing at the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday.

UXBRIDGE, Canada, Nov 07 (IPS) - If global carbon emissions continue to rise at their current rate, humanity will eventually be left with no other option than a costly, world war-like mobilisation, scientists warned this week.

WASHINGTON, Nov 07 (IPS) - After a drone strike had reportedly killed Pakistani Taliban leader Hakimullah Mehsud Nov. 1, the spokesperson for the U.S. National Security Council declared that, if true, it would be "a serious loss" for the terrorist organisation.

MÁLAGA, Spain/BUENOS AIRES, Nov 07 (IPS) - While non-heterosexual orientation is punishable by death in some parts of the world, in others the right to choose one's gender identity has begun to be respected from early childhood, giving rise to a new field of challenges.

KAMPALA?, Nov 07 (IPS) - This year, as Uganda gears up to start producing the nearly two billion barrels in oil reserves that were discovered near its western border, critics say that little is being done to exploit the rich mineral resources located in some of the country's poorest areas.

OCCUPIED EAST JERUSALEM, Nov 07 (IPS) - As Palestinian-Israeli peace talks and nuclear talks on Iran's disputed nuclear programme continue, a unique international conference, "A Middle East without Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMDs)", was held in Jerusalem.

KILINOCHCHI, Sri Lanka, Nov 07 (IPS) - When the first trains in almost two and a half decades started running through this war-ravaged town in Sri Lanka in mid-September, Sinngamuththu Jesudasan could not resist the temptation to go and have a look - repeatedly.

CAIRO, Nov 07 (IPS) - Demonstrations have been at the heart of historic upheavals in Egypt since January 2011. But a newly proposed law that seeks to regulate protests could imperil one of the biggest gains of the Arab Spring revolution here: freedom of expression.

WASHINGTON, Nov 07 (IPS) - While Monday's meeting between Secretary of State John Kerry and Saudi King Abdullah may have helped calm the waters, the latest anxieties and anger expressed by Riyadh toward the United States has reignited debate here about the value of the two countries' long-standing alliance.

GENEVA, Nov 06 (IPS) - Against a backdrop of cautious optimism, Iran and six world powers known as the P5+1 are reconvening here for talks Nov. 7-8 over Tehran's nuclear programme.