JOHANNESBURG, Sep 15 (IPS) - Adolescence is a time of transition from childhood to adulthood. It is also a time of change and challenge. 

PARIS, Sep 14 (IPS) - The Oscar-winning film 12 Years a Slave opened many people's eyes to the barbarity of slavery and fuelled some discussion about that period in world history. But the film is just one of the many initiatives to "break the silence" around the 400 years of the transatlantic slave trade and to "shed light" on its lasting historical consequences.

UNITED NATIONS, Sep 12 (IPS) - The U.N. Security Council (UNSC), the only international body empowered to declare war and peace, continues to remain a silent witness to the widespread devastation and killings worldwide, including in Palestine, Syria, Iraq, Libya, Yemen and Ukraine.

BELFAST, Sep 12 (IPS) - While the United States, United Kingdom and NATO are pushing for war with Russia, it behoves people and their governments around the world to take a clear stand for peace and against violence and war, no matter where it comes from.

JIQUILISCO, El Salvador, Sep 12 (IPS) - Peasant farmers from one of El Salvador's most fragile coastal areas are implementing a model of sustainable economic growth that respects the environment and offers people education and security as keys to give the wetland region a boost.

SAN DIEGO, Sep 12 (IPS) - For decades, the minority Christian population of Iraq has been suffering hardships. But in the summer months of 2014 - and since the beginning of the military campaign by ISIS (Islamic State in Iraq and al-Sham, also known as ISIL or Islamic State) - the situation has gone from bad to intolerably worse.

WASHINGTON, Sep 12 (IPS) - U.S. President Barack Obama's new strategy to "degrade, and ultimately destroy" the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) is being met with widespread scepticism among both hawks and doves, as well as regional specialists.

WASHINGTON, Sep 11 (IPS) - At least half of global deforestation is taking place illegally and in support of commercial agriculture, new analysis released Thursday finds – particularly to supply overseas markets.

BARCELONA, Sep 11 (IPS) - At last, after the obligatory summer break, the European Union (EU) has some new faces to fill the top vacancies on the team that began to emerge from the May 25 parliamentary elections.

MONROVIA, Sep 11 (IPS) - As the Ebola crisis continues to take a toll on people's lives and livelihoods in West Africa, the focus is increasingly not just on the health aspects of the crisis, but also on its social and economic consequences.