Prof. Gilbert Achcar of the School of Oriental and Asian Studies in London has made a unique contribution to the ongoing “one-state or two-states” debate in a recent wide ranging interview to Mesele, a progressive periodical in Turkey.

Prime Minister Fukuda Yasuo at the 4th International Conference on African Development held in Yokohama City (May 28-30) promised to double Japan’s Official Development Assistance volume for Africa to 200 billion yen within the next five years.

A new UN task force on the food crisis is analyzing the situation in at least 45 affected countries to help develop action plans to meet urgent and long-term needs, said John Holmes, the UN Emergency Relief Coordinator and Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs.

About fifty heads of state gathered before cameras from all over the world : the reason why the summit of the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization that opened in Rome yesterday is arousing so much interest is that it comes at a time when mankind is confronted with a tragic situation.

As much as 15 billion to 20 billion U.S. dollars would be needed yearly to help fight the food crisis amid soaring prices, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said here on Wednesday.

Cuba stressed in Rome today that hunger and malnutrition are the consequences of an international world order that maintains and deepens poverty, inequalities and injustice.

Biofuel is in the dock at the global food summit in Rome this week, with counties divided over whether it is the villain behind food insecurity, or the cheap energy of the future.

The danger which threatens Iraq's childhood, in its present and future, has become greater than ever before. The devastation inflicted on children by the wars and militarization of society by the dictatorship, was further aggravated by occupation.

This is not the best of times for those who make a living out of being financial intermediaries. Recent times have seen more than an apparent meltdown in some major financial markets, such as that of the United States.

Harman believes that there is an essential logic to the apparently bewildering confusion of history. For instance, he answers a question that has always puzzled me.

Researchers were astounded when, in the fall of 2007, they discovered that the year-round ice pack in the Arctic Ocean had lost some 20 percent of its mass in just two years, setting a new record low since satellite imagery began documenting the terrain in 1978.

The strange logic of western political discourse consists of paradigms such as the following: the "Third World" is named as such by the "First World" because it somehow inherently inferior and developmentally backwards compared to the "First World," even though its shortcomings are largely due to exploitative, extractive "First World" economic policies.

The price of crude oil more than doubled in 12 months and more than quadrupled in five yeas since May 2003. The big oil corporations empty people’s pockets and pump out record profits, while the government sits by and says there is little else it can do.

Pero si yo tuviera que resumirlo y proyectar un escenario, creo que nos enfrentamos a varios años con una economía muy débil y temblorosa que para mucha gente equivaldrá a una recesión prolongada, aunque no lo será formalmente.

If I had to put it all together and lay out a scenario, I think we are facing years of a very weak and stumbling economy that will feel to many people like an extended recession, even if it is not formally one.

Marxists and non-Marxist economists have predicted the current financial crisis for some time. Its conditions have been in operation since the acceleration of the deregulation processes in the monetary and financial markets.

Globalization has created a situation which generated a worldwide phenomenon of migration of millions of workers to other countries. Finance capital’s thrust for cheap labor to bring down the cost of production in an environment of cut throat competition has given a powerful impetus to the phenomenon of migration of labor both within as well as outside the country.

The effects of global warming manifest themselves differently in different locations, and winter is no doubt getting shorter and warmer across New England, the Canadian Maritimes and Northern Europe.

Sooner rather than later, we must all take a deep look into ourselves, evaluate those values which were indoctrinated into us from very early age, through our faiths, religions, education and social interaction.

The natural disasters that have caused so much destruction and loss of life in recent times are going to continue and perhaps become more frequent and destructive.