September in Mozambique’s capital has begun with violent protests. Thousands have been striking over an increase in the prices of basic goods, including bread. Police responded with force – firing on crowds gathered on the streets in several suburbs and townships in and around Maputo.

Quality of life in Eastern European cities will continue to fall unless outdated
systems of city life dominated by cars are abandoned, NGOs in the region say.

As Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood gears up to contest November parliamentary
elections, some analysts note the relatively few gains made by the Brotherhood-
led opposition over the last five years in an assembly dominated by the ruling
National Democratic Party (NDP).

Campaigns featuring some of China’s biggest celebrities,
including basketball star Yao Ming and actor Jackie Chan, have
persuaded some Chinese to think twice about eating shark fin
soup. But changing attitudes about the centuries-old delicacy,
a large contributor to decimated shark populations, continues
to be a challenge.

China’s stepping up as the world’s second largest economy drives home to Japan
the point that after decades of ruling the roost in Asia, it will have to share the
leadership stage with a new, powerful contender that is here to stay.

As one major meeting on agriculture ends, another begins: farming is truly back on Africa’s agenda.

A loan deal between the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and flood-stricken
Pakistan announced Thursday has drawn the ire of several NGOs that claim the
deal represents an "inadequate" and "cynical" response to the disaster that is
estimated to have affected the lives of millions.

Tamaulipas state has become the black hole of organised crime in Mexico. But there are few accounts of the rapid social breakdown that the northeastern border state has experienced since the start of the year, because the local press is silenced.

The huge gap between the poorest and richest neighbourhoods of Brazil’s most famous city shrank between 1996 and 2008. But the news is not as good as it sounds, because the decline in inequality was due to lower incomes in the richer zones, rather than to an increase in wealth in the "favelas" or shantytowns.

A national pact to focus on the rights of children was proposed by United Nations representative in Bolivia Yoriko Yasukawa on the 20th anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

The number of women raped by rebel groups during last month’s raid of more
than a dozen villages centred around Walikale, Democratic Republic of the Congo
(DRC), has risen to over 240, U.N. officials told reporters here today.

As a new administration takes over in Bogotá, some groups are hoping for
change in the human rights record of Colombia – and that the U.S. will use its
clout in the country to ensure that change occurs.

The Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) has received a major boost as several countries have begun drawing on funds from a $22 billion pledge made by the G8.

Hilaria Supa has broken down many barriers in her life. Now she has overcome another one, in an unprecedented achievement: this Quechua indigenous woman who never went to school is today chair of the congressional education committee in Peru.

"An HIV-positive woman must never be encouraged to breastfeed because regardless of what the doctors or researchers say – it is too dangerous for the baby," says Koziba Kelatlhe an HIV-positive mother who was advised by health workers not to breastfeed her child.