Until the 30th of May, the ninth meeting of the Convention on Biological Diversity takes places in Bonn, Germany. Since the convention has been called into being, after the Summit for Sustainable Development in 1992, the importance of biodiversity has only grown.

Some scornfully call them the ‘Achilles’ heel of capitalism’, while others admire them for being ‘the lubricant of the wheels of the international economy’. For years tax havens have been under fire because of their presumed role in providing a safe haven for money laundering criminal organizations and terrorists. Less known is the fact that they a ...

At the age of 52, Graça Machel for the second time in her life became First Lady. In 1986, her first husband, president Samora Machel of Mozambique, died in a suspicious plane crash. Today Graça is married to Nelson Mandela who has ninety candles on his birthday cake this year!

The large pharmaceutical companies – often referred to as Big Pharma – hold on to a policy of protecting their patents, the high prices and corresponding huge profits. This stubbornness collides with advertised commitment to fight Aids in Africa and hampers more extensive distribution for Aids treatment.

The price of grain broke absolute records worldwide. Good news for farmers: for one ton of wheat, corn or soybeans they get at least 25 percent more than last year. At the Minneapolis Grain Exchange the price of wheat rose to three times the price of 1996, 80 percent more than last year.

Until recently all was relatively quiet in the Belgian media about the European activities of the Kurdish Labour Party PKK. Yet the secession movement is said to be pretty active in Western Europe. This was declared only last February on Turkish CNN by Frank Urbancic, assistant-co-ordinator for Antiterrorism at the American department of Foreign Af ...

Bioterror is one of the biggest concerns for the American intelligence, as stated by Mike McConnell, Director of National Intelligence in The New Yorker magazine early this year. The boss of spies was particularly weary of a pandemic disease like avian influenza (bird flu), especially when used as weapon. “You could turn it into a human virus, caus ...

“The new face of hunger” is what UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon called the recent food crisis. Its main feature is not scarcity but urban masses who can’t afford food anymore due to the spectacular price-rise. Consequence: social unrest, aggression, riots.

Ghana used to be called the Gold Coast. It’s still worthy of the name, especially now the price of gold is breaking every record. Beneath the Anjenjua Bepo Forest reserve in Ghana -a piece of rainforest- lies a big amount of gold. The giant American mining company Newmont wants to start up the Akyem mine.

According to Lester Brown, we, as a civilisation, are in danger of decline. Not only is global warming threatening our existence, but also a multiplicity of unsolved problems. Browns New book Plan B 3.0 is a crisis call, however it also offers hopeful perspectives.

“Afrika, the final frontier” - with this slogan the Dutch bank ABN Amro is trying to bait investors into buying a 10 euro-share in the Africa-certificate, which was launched early February. Already last year the bank marketed a Africa Raw Materials certificate, as well as a cerficate for Egypt, Morocco, Nigeria and South Africa. Not surprisingly th ...

Breaking news two years ago: American intelligence had access to information about financial transfers of millions of people worldwide using a company operating from Brussels. At the request of Belgium, the European Commission and the US tried to resolve the problem of the so-called Swiftgate. But up to now not with satisfactory results.