"I can no longer stay here in Kano as it rains bombs. The gun battles rattle us…
Kano is no longer safe," said pregnant Funke Nweke of her decision to flee
Nigeria’s northern state with her five-year-old daughter.

The ongoing controversy over the activities of U.S. and other
foreign non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in Egypt appears
to be bringing ties between the two countries to their lowest
point in nearly 40 years.

More than a decade ago, solar electricity changed the lives of
several mountain communities in Cuba. Now this and other
renewable power sources are emerging as the best options
available to develop sustainable energy across the island.

"I want my own computer so that I can talk to my cousins who
live in Italy," says eight-year-old Camila Ojeda, sitting in
front of a computer monitor on a bus that acts as a mobile
cybercafé in the Paraguayan capital.

By the end of 2011, the United States had elite special
operations forces in around 120 of the 192 countries
recognised by the United Nations, with U.S. military bases in
more than half of the world’s nation-states.

Maheen was nine years old when she witnessed the death of her elder
brother. At the age of 10 she saw the dead body of her neighbour,
killed in the crossfire between Kashmiri rebels and Indian security
forces, his guts spilled out on the road.

It is far from Pearl Roundabout, the scene of last year’s crackdown on pro-democracy protestors, but for now Mughsha, a village in the northern district of Bahrain, serves as the centre of the country’s ‘Arab Spring’ movement.

Spain’s new conservative government has announced changes in
environmental policy that are a significant step backwards for
environmental protection in the country, provoking an
immediate, harsh reaction from the opposition and civil
society.

As half of Mexico endures one of the most severe droughts in
its history, cloud seeding appears to be a promising way to
bring desperately needed rain, although it remains a source of
controversy.

It’s miserable this time of year in Tehran. The short days are
darkened further by the annual submersion of the city under a
thick layer of exhaust and smoke. With the surrounding
mountains and weak wind and winter sun, the pollution hovers
for days, prompting the government to issue regular warnings
to the elderly, pregnant and those with heart conditions not
to go outside.

The lack of transparency in the preparations for the 2014 FIFA
World Cup in Brazil is raising concerns over the social
implications of hosting the football championship and fears
that the country’s most democratic and popular sport will only
be accessible to the wealthy.

Following a failed bid to pass a U.N. Security Council
Resolution calling for regime change in Syria, Washington is
considering other means to influence events on the ground, as
the country slips ever closer toward civil war.

Since Russia and China vetoed a key resolution critical of
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s violent repression of the
ongoing 11-month old civilian uprising, there has been plenty
of public outrage directed at the two permanent members of the
Security Council who stood defiant against an overwhelming
majority.

As U.N. Deputy Secretary-General Asha-Rose Migiro once put it,
"Women hold the keys to unlocking the barriers to sustainable
development."

"In the Andes, and all over the world, mining on mountains
should be banned. Distinguished scientists and papers in the
most prestigious journals are saying this," a regional
planning expert in Colombia told IPS.