WASHINGTON, Aug 06 (IPS) - The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations have been hitting headlines recently, but not for all the right reasons.

SYDNEY, Aug 06 (IPS) - Innovation in the fields of renewable energy, food production, water conservation, education and health will be crucial for the developing economies of Asia to meet the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

HAVANA, Aug 06 (IPS) - Tears, silence and evasive responses are the reactions from Cubans when they are asked about the "balseros" or rafters crisis; two decades after an exodus without parallel in Latin America, it remains a taboo subject in this Caribbean island nation.

NAKURU COUNTY, Kenya, Aug 06 (IPS) - Allan Karanja, 22, is a sand harvester. His job is a complex and arduous one that involves him working in deep pits, equipped only with a shovel, crowbar and no protective gear, as he mines sand. It's also a deadly occupation.

SANTIAGO, Aug 05 (IPS) - With the first solar thermal power plant in Latin America, Chile hopes to begin to alleviate its energy crisis, which threatens to further drive up the high cost of electricity and to hinder the growth of investment, especially in the mining industry.

PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, Aug 05 (IPS) - Buildings are among the largest consumers of earth's natural resources. According to the Sustainable Buildings and Climate Initiative, they use about 40 percent of global energy and 25 percent of global water, while emitting about a third of greenhouse gas emissions.

WASHINGTON, Aug 05 (IPS) - Leah Hughes has big dreams of becoming a community organiser in Appalachia. A rising senior at the California-based Scripps College, Hughes is pursuing a dual degree in International Relations and Studio Art, and is incredibly thankful for her higher education experience thus far.

BEIRUT, Aug 05 (IPS) - Concerns about supporting a national army collaborating with a ‘terrorist organisation' in Lebanon have in recent times been superseded by threats inherent in growing regional conflict.

KOUOPTOMO, Cameroon, Aug 05 (IPS) - Issah Mounde Nsangou combs his 6.5-hectare Kouoptomo coffee plantation in Cameroon's West Region, pulling up unwanted weeds and clipping off parasitic plants. For the 50-year-old farmer, the health of his coffee plants are of prime importance.

UNITED NATIONS, Aug 04 (IPS) - When world political leaders met at the United Nations back in 2005, they unanimously adopted a resolution affirming the principle of "Responsibility to Protect" (R2P), aimed primarily at safeguarding innocent civilians from war crimes, genocide, mass atrocities and ethnic cleansing.