The sex scandal in the top couloirs of the IMF and the power struggle to find asuccessor to Dominique Strauss-Kahn has fascinated the Chinese. Rifespeculations about political intrigues and shadowy deals behind the scenes havespilled into cyberspace and the usually restrained media.

Stressing that there is only so much money to go around, development expertsworry that the aid package the Group of Eight (G8) has announced for NorthAfrica may mean fewer funds for the rest of the continent.

In the 1970s, with no Internet or social networking sites to get information out, Amnesty International managed to become a thorn in the side of the dictatorships of the Southern Cone of South America, several people who benefited from its advocacy work recalled on the occasion of the rights watchdog's 50th anniversary.

As leaders of the Group of Eight ended their two-day summit in this seasidetown Friday, non-governmental organisations said the meeting had resultedin few concrete commitments.

Libya's enormous aquatic reserves could potentially become a new weapon ofchoice if government forces opt to starve coastal cities that heavily rely on freeflowing freshwater.

As the International Criminal Court gears up to elect six judges and a new prosecutor, observers are warning that political rather than merit-based considerations could govern the evaluation of candidates.

More than half of Georgia's population still lives in abject poverty due toeconomic stagnation, worsening living standards, rising unemployment and lowpay nearly nine years after the 2003 bloodless‘Rose Revolution' that promisedpost-Soviet economic revival, a new political course and better living conditions.

The world has witnessed a decline in global peace over thelast year, according to the 2011 Global Peace Index, or GPI,released by the Institute for Economics and Peace Wednesday.

The World Bank is working to update the mechanisms it uses to measure the effects of the financing it provides, particularly in environmental and social terms, now that it is gearing up to administer the new Green Climate Fund.

The presence of religion in public space challenges our ideasabout the roles of faith in our lives and politics. Over thelast centuries, proponents of secularisation have claimed thatas societies modernise, the role of religion in public andprivate life diminishes. For them, modern rationality,science, and the ideal of representative governments assovereign replace religion as a source of authority,regulation, and security.

Europe is facing a hungry future unless it changes agricultural policies andmakes farmers the main participants in agriculture research, a new report hasfound. And there is little hope of meeting Europe's recently announced goal ofreducing the loss of biodiversity in ten years without making those changes.

When leaders of the Group of 8 (G8) industrialised nationsmeet in Deauville, France later this week, there is a strongpossibility that politics will take precedence overtraditional socioeconomic issues like food security anddevelopment aid, which are being overshadowed by the Arabrevolution and Palestinian statehood.

The International Monetary Fund will probably continue to be headed by a European after the resignation of France's Dominique Strauss-Kahn, but the debate over his replacement indicates this degree of Eurocentrism is unlikely to prevail the next time a successor is sought.

Amid a flurry of meetings in Europe, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary RodhamClinton will help to launch a"global partnership for girls' and women'seducation"here Thursday at the United Nations Education, Scientific and CulturalOrganisation (UNESCO).

Of the various cooperation programmes Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singhannounced in Addis Ababa on Tuesday, plans for an India-Africa VirtualUniversity (IAVU) take pride of place.