News stories by Ignacio Ramonet

PARIS, Jun 07 (IPS) - It is unlikely that Brazilians will listen to the audacious call made by Michel Platini – a great player in his time and now the politicking president of the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) – on Apr. 26: "Brazil, make an effort for a month, calm down!"

PARIS, Jul 12 (IPS) - We were afraid this would happen. We had been warned by books (George Orwell's "1984") and films (Steven Spielberg's "Minority Report") that with the progress being made in communication technology, we would all end up under surveillance.

, Dic 05 (IPS) - People in the streets and squares of the Colombian capital are breathing easier. The air is fresh with hope, in contrast to the former leaden and fearful atmosphere of eternal violence and interminable conflict.

PARIS, Nov 09 (IPS) - For anyone who might not have realised it yet, the current crisis is demonstrating beyond a shadow of a doubt that the financial markets are the lead players in the current economic situation in Europe. Power has passed from the politicians to speculators and crooked bankers. This is a fundamental change.

The United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development will be held in Rio de Janiero, Brazil, from Jun. 20-22, twenty years after the first great Earth Summit in 1992. Dubbed Rio+20, the conference will draw more than 80 heads of state. Discussion will focus on two main themes: the "green economy" in the context of sustainable development and poverty eradication, and the institutional context of sustainable development, writes Ignacio Ramonet, editor of Le Monde diplomatique en Espanol.

After so many budget cuts, belt-tightening, and structural adjustment programmes, a feeling of asphyxiation is gripping large numbers of citizens in many countries of the European Union, writes Ignacio Ramonet, editor of Le Monde diplomatique en espanol.

Thus far not a single poll shows Sarkozy winning in France's upcoming presidential elections, though the president is a tenacious fighter willing to do whatever it takes to win, at times behaving like an unscrupulous thug or true mercenary. Since he began the campaign, with monumental shamelessness, he ­ the president of the rich ­ has had the nerve to present himself as the "candidate of the people", wielding near-xenophobic arguments to pander to the far right, writes Ignacio Ramonet, editor of Le Monde diplomatique en espanol.

With the hawks ratcheting up their cry to attack Iran's nuclear facilities, the need for diplomacy is all the more urgent, writes Ignacio Ramonet, editor of 'Le Monde diplomatique en espanol'.