When Defence Secretary Leon Panetta told Washington Post
columnist David Ignatius this week that he believes Israel was
likely to attack Iran between April and June, it was
ostensibly yet another expression of alarm at the Israeli
government’s threats of military action.

Twenty years ago, a military rebellion led by Venezuelan
president – then lieutenant-colonel – Hugo Chávez ushered in
an enduring era of turmoil for the country’s democracy, with
abrupt changes in its institutions and a climate of political
upheaval and social and economic instability.

It’s been almost a year since Benghazi launched its uprising against former
Libyan president Muammar Gaddafi and three months since he was killed, but
there is a growing sense of frustration in eastern Libya with the National
Transitional Council. Two weeks ago, a group of protesters attacked the
Council’s Benghazi headquarters as chairman Mustafa Abdeljalil was inside,
forcing him to flee through the back door.

A landmark concert featuring artistes from eight of the ten
South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) took place here on Jan. 21,
in an effort to build a regional community through the common
language of music.

The illegal trade in ivory continues in Egypt, with ivory products sold openly in
local tourist markets by traders who operate with impunity, a new study by the
conservation group Traffic has found.

Women have been left in charge of many of the households in the village of
Zamkoye-Koïra, in western Niger, as food shortages have driven male family
members to leave in search of work elsewhere. A national survey of vulnerable
households shows that 5.4 million people face food insecurity across Niger.

Earlier this week, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban
Development (HUD) announced the publication of a new notice
which significantly tightens its procedures for the processing
of public housing demolition applications by local housing
authorities.

With a steady growth in production and exports, fair trade in
Argentina is proving that socially and environmentally
sustainable practices can be much more than a refuge from
external crises.

If the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) had 1.28 billion dollars it could
help 97 million people around the world.

A radical political group based in a working class
neighbourhood of the Venezuelan capital has sparked a furore
by publishing photographs of children from the community, with
their faces partially hidden, brandishing AR-15 assault
rifles.

The rise of emerging economies in Latin America is an
opportunity to improve strategies for fighting neglected
illnesses and increase the region’s contribution to the global
struggle against them, says the regional director of an
organisation devoted to this purpose.

Through its ties with Venezuela and other nations in Latin
America, Iran is building an anti-U.S. alliance in the Western
Hemisphere that poses a direct, imminent threat to the United
States, an influential U.S. lawmaker said Thursday.

When a financial crisis threatened the existence of Africa’s oldest community
station, Bush Radio, an outpouring of sympathy and appeals went viral on social
networking sites like Twitter and Facebook. In the end, it was this outspoken
support that showed financial backers that the station was worth saving.

An accident at an ultra-deepwater drilling platform spilled
160 barrels of crude off the coast of Brazil this week,
deepening fears about safety in this new frontier of oil and
gas production.

Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff’s visit to Cuba served to
further strengthen bilateral relations between the two
countries, leverage the South American giant’s investments in
the Caribbean island, and deepen political ties.