News stories by Chryso D'Angelo

Despite numerous factors that threaten the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals by 2015 - a global financial crisis, a food crisis, climate change, natural disasters — U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said this week that his main concern is 'political will'.

'When I saw the leaves on the trees curl and turn black and birds fall dead out of the sky, I knew that this was Death, come among us as foretold. My regret is that I survived,' said a native of Bhopal India after a gas leak at a pesticide plant killed 8,000-10,000 people in 1984.

Iraqi minority groups are caught up in a power struggle between the country's Arab-dominated central government and the Kurdish-controlled regional government over the oil-rich Nineveh province - and they are paying with their lives, according Human Rights Watch.

The rate of breast cancer in developing countries is on the rise, according to the Harvard School of Public Health, which estimates that the poor will account for more than 55 percent of breast cancer deaths this year.

Seven-month-old Marta lived in the central highlands of Guatemala when she came down with a high fever and rapid, shallow breathing.

'It was late in the evening, and we were just getting ready for bed. Three men in black police uniforms and another four in military camouflage came to our house. They said my sons have been involved in attacks against Chinese... they twisted their arms and led them away,' said Kamalutdin K.

U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has appealed to the information and communications technology (ICT) community to help seal the deal at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen in December.