PYEONGCHANG, Republic of Korea, Oct 16 (IPS) - The Mountain Chicken isn't a fowl, as its name suggests, but a frog. Kimisha Thomas, hailing from the Caribbean island nation of Dominica, remembers a time when she could find these amphibians or ‘crapaud' as locals call them "just in the backyard".

BISHKEK, Oct 16 (IPS) - Each winter in Kyrgyzstan the energy situation seems to worsen; blackouts last longer, and officials seem less able to do anything to improve conditions. This year is expected to be particularly difficult.

ADDIS ABABA, Oct 16 (IPS) - Ethiopia has experienced its fair share of environmental damage and degradation but nowadays it is increasingly setting an example on how to combat climate change while also achieving economic growth. 

MARRAKECH, Oct 16 (IPS) - Africa has the capacity to access at least 200 billion dollars for sustainable development investment but it will remain a slave to foreign aid unless it improves the climate for investment and trade and plugs illicit financial flows, development experts say.

CÁRDENAS, Cuba, Oct 16 (IPS) - Cafés, real estate agencies, taxis and other small privately-owned businesses and cooperatives in Cuba have brought new life to the depressed local economy and have given rise to pockets of prosperity in the country's towns and cities.

WASHINGTON, Oct 15 (IPS) - Despite the public's persistent war weariness, the U.S. defence budget – the world's biggest by far – may be set to rise again, according to a new study released here this week by the Center for International Policy (CIP).

PARAMARIBO, Suriname, Oct 15 (IPS) - Farmers in the Caribbean are being encouraged to make more use of farm apps and other forms of ICT in an effort to increase the knowledge available for making sound, profitable farming decisions.

WASHINGTON, Oct 15 (IPS) - As the international media is mesmerised by the Islamic State's advance on Kobani or ‘Ayn al-Arab on the Syrian-Turkish border, Arab states and the United States would need to look beyond Kobani's fate and the Islamic State's territorial successes and defeats.

UNITED NATIONS, Oct 15 (IPS) - When political leaders from climate-threatened Small Island Developing States (SIDS) addressed the U.N. General Assembly last month, there was one recurring theme: the urgent need to protect the high seas and preserve the world's marine biodiversity.

ATHENS, Oct 15 (IPS) - As the cyclonic storm Hudhud ripped through India's eastern state of Andhra Pradesh, home to two million people, at a land speed of over 190 kilometres per hour on Sunday, it destroyed electricity and telephone infrastructure, damaged the airport, and laid waste to thousands of thatched houses, as well as rice fields, banana plantations and sugarcane crops throughout the state.