Buddhist Leader Pushes for Nuclear Abolition Treaty
IDN Special IDN-InDepth NewsInterview of Daisaku Ikeda BERLIN/TOKYO (IDN) - An eminent Buddhist thinker, Daisaku Ikeda, has called for an early start of negotiations for a global treaty to abolish nuclear weapons and all other weapons of mass destruction, to coincide -- ideally -- with the 70th anniversary of the atom bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. ARABIC | CHINESE Tra | CHINESE Sim | GERMAN | ITALIAN |  JAPANESE PDF  TEXT VERSION  | SPANISH |  TURKISH | URDU

World Economy Taking New Shape
By Richard Johnson IDN-InDepth NewsAnalysis PARIS (IDN) - The biggest economic story of our times is unfolding itself. In the new economic world we live in, countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America are providing the dynamism for future growth. In fact, economic growth in the developing world has outpaced that in advanced economies for more than a decade. Developing countries are set to contribute nearly 60 percent of world GDP (gross domestic product) by 2030. JAPANESE

There is something Systemic about the Oil Spill
By Julio Godoy IDN-InDepth NewsViewpoint BERLIN (IDN) - If the world needed a symbol of the dimensions of the environmental catastrophe the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico embodies, then it was this: Dozens of pelicans, the archetypical bird of the area, oil-soaked, condemned to dying before our eyes. Before us, helpless spectators, horrified by British Petroleum's deeds. JAPANESE

The Challenge of Moving Fast toward a Nuke-Free World
By Ernest Corea IDN-InDepth NewsAnalysis WASHINGTON DC (IDN) – Gloom-and-doom headlines in the waning days of the 2010 review conference of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) caused many observers to assume that negotiations would collapse in deadlock, but the Final Declaration of the conference was adopted without dissent. Consensus on potentially contentious issues was a significant milestone on the path toward nuclear disarmament. JAPANESE PDF TEXT VERSION

China Communicates With Foreign Media Professionals
By Madhu Datta IDN-InDepth NewsAnalysis BEIJING (IDN) – Who is afraid of “creativity, credibility, rights and responsibilities” of the media? Certainly not China – particularly when it comes to projecting the image of a modern and vibrant country. For this, the Asia Media Summit 2010 in Beijing – organized by the inter-governmental Asia-Pacific Institute for Broadcasting Development (AIBD) and the Chinese State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT) – provided an ideal opportunity. JAPANESE

Youth Want Nukes Abolished – Push for New Convention
By Jamshed Baruah IDN-InDepth NewsInterview BERLIN/TOKYO (IDN) – As senior officials from around the world negotiate in New York an agreement aimed at curbing the spread of nuclear weapons, a close look at the attitudes of the youth in six countries offers a critical insight into the need for spreading word about the culture of peace. Youth members of Soka Gakkai International, a Buddhist association with 12 million members around the world, asked their peers what they think about nuclear weapons and their abolition.

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Egypt Escalates 'War on Nuclear Weapons'
By Fareed Mahdy IDN-InDepth NewsAnalysis ISTANBUL (IDN) – Strongly backed by Arab countries and Turkey, Egypt has escalated its intensive diplomatic offensive for freeing the Middle East of all kinds of weapons of mass destruction, starting with nuclear arms. ARABIC | GERMAN | JAPANESE

One Billion Reasons to Disarm the Planet
By Badriya Khan* IDN-InDepth NewsAnalysis BARCELONA (IDN) – The world is over-armed; the world is over-hungry. This is not a new slogan – this is a proven fact showing that the world spends well over 1 trillion dollars a year on weapons, while more than one billion people are hungry. JAPANESE

Trucking Safe with Ecology in the Pouch
By Taro Ichikawa IDN-InDepth NewsFeature* Tokyo (IDN) - Like the kangaroo pouch pocket that provides a place of shelter for the young after they are born, the truckers of Tokyo’s legendary Nagai Transportation Company move their cargo with great care. No surprise therefore that the kangaroo is the logo of the company that celebrates “60 years of good faith and gratitude”. GERMAN | JAPANESE

The Responsibility to Protect Obama – 15 Months After
By Jayantha Dhanapala* IDN-InDepth NewsViewpoint WASHINGTON DC (IDN) - Not since John F. Kennedy has an American President exuded such grace, magnetism and hope. If Obama fails to achieve his vision for his country and for the world there will be a long wait for another leader of his potential. Obama’s success will ensure a better USA and a better world. JAPANESE

Challenges Ahead for Security after the Nuke Summit
By Ernest Corea IDN-InDepth NewsAnalysis WASHINGTON DC (IDN) - The Nuclear Security Summit convened by President Barack Obama attracted 47 high-level participants – over 30 of them heads of state or government – who collectively agreed on several small but important steps on the path towards global safety from a “rogue” nuclear attack. This could be mounted by “non-state” sources or by a state that does not observe the rules. JAPANESE

Reflecting the Reality of War in Iraq
By Dahr Jamail* IDN-InDepth NewsAnalysis ANCHORAGE, Alaska (IDN) – The leaked video of a U.S. military helicopter opening fire on a crowd of people in Iraq is typical of the indiscriminate killing that has gone on since the initial invasion. On Monday, April 5, WikiLeaks.org posted video footage from Iraq, taken from a U.S. military Apache helicopter in July 2007 as soldiers aboard it killed 12 people and wounded two children. The dead included two employees of the Reuters news agency: photographer Namir Noor-Eldeen and driver Saeed Chmagh. JAPANESE

Toward a Modern Nuclear Security Enterprise
By Ramesh Jaura IDN-InDepth NewsAnalysis BERLIN (IDN) – Transformation of the U.S. atomic weapons complex into “a modern, sustainable 21st century nuclear security enterprise” forms the nucleus of President Barack Obama’s agenda manifested in the new START Treaty, he and Russian President Dmitriy Medvedev signed in Prague on April 8. ARABIC | JAPANESE

Shrinking Aral Sea Sends Shockwaves
By Raushan Valikhanov IDN-InDepth NewsAnalysis NUKUS (IDN) – UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s flying tour of the Aral Sea area has highlighted the woes caused by one of the greatest environmental catastrophes ever recorded. He witnessed the shocking sight when he flew over it on April 4, 2010. JAPANESE

Don’t Misuse Past Atrocities for Political Purposes
By Thomas Hammarbeg* IDN-InDepth NewsViewpoint STRASBOURG (IDN) - Gross human rights violations in the past continue to affect relations in today’s Europe. In some cases the right lessons have been learned; genuine knowledge of history has facilitated understanding, tolerance and trust between individuals and peoples. However, some serious atrocities are denied or trivialised, which has created new tensions. JAPANESE PDF  TEXT

Dramatic Arab Appeal for a Nuclear-Free World
By Fareed Mahdy IDN-InDepth NewsAnalysis ISTANBUL (IDN) – Call it perfect timing or a sheer historical coincidence; be it because they feel caught between the Israeli nuclear hammer and the Iranian might-be atomic anvil or just because they truly want it, the fact is that the leaders of 22 Arab countries have launched an unprecedented massive and pressing call to free the world from nuclear weapons. ARABIC | JAPANESE

French Books for Child Victims in Central Africa
By Babukar Kashka IDN-InDepth NewsAnalysis NAIROBI (IDN) – The Central African Republic (CAR) is in dire need of everything – in fact it has been beset by sporadic conflict in recent years between government forces and rebels and a spill-over of violence from neighbouring countries that have left hundreds of thousands of people displaced. JAPANESE

Parliamentarians Vow Support For Indigenous Peoples
By Ramesh Jaura IDN-InDepth NewsSpecial MANILA (IDN) – The concerns of the indigenous peoples, at the heart of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII), are considered of vital significance by parliamentarians of the countries of Asia-Pacific. The region hosts some 70 percent of the indigenous peoples, who are among the poorest of the world and often the most marginalized and disadvantaged in their countries. GERMAN | JAPANESE

Crisis Group Shows Madagascar Way Out Of Stalemate
By Jerome Mwanda IDN-InDepth NewsAnalysis NAIROBI (IDN) – Formerly an independent kingdom that was colonised by the French in 1896 but regained independence in 1960, the island nation of Madagascar in the Indian Ocean off the south-eastern coast of Africa has been in crisis since the bloody upheavals in early 2009. Several rounds of mediation under the auspices of the African Union (AU) and others have failed to unlock the stalemate.

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The Tale Of Two Earthquake Disasters
By Ashley Smith* IDN-InDepth NewsAnalysis BURLINGTON (IDN) - The world's tectonic plates are always in motion, but in the past two months, they seem to have struck more dramatically than usual. On January 12, a 7.0-magnitude earthquake devastated Haiti, killing as many as 300,000 people and leaving more than 1.5 million people homeless. Then, on February 27, another quake hit south-western Chile, killing hundreds and leaving more than 2 million people homeless. JAPANESE

UN Warns Against Over-Dependence On GMOs
By Maria Luisa Vargas IDN-InDepth NewsAnalysis MEXICO CITY (IDN) - Some nine billion people are expected to inhabit the planet earth by 2050. This growth forecast is giving rise to the question how the growing number of people will be fed. The biotech industry sees no problem at all. In its view, the way out of the current impasse and toward meeting future requirements is in the deployment of genetic engineering. But the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) does not share this view. JAPANESE

What About American, European Genocides!
By Fareed Mahdy IDN-InDepth NewsAnalysis ISTANBUL (IDN) – Did you ask yourself what would happen if the Turkish parliament’s foreign affairs committee adopted a resolution calling “genocides” the U.S. killing of American natives, the Spanish extermination of aborigines in Latin America, the atrocious American nuclear bombs on Japan or the U.S. wars on Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq – just to mention some massive murdering perpetrated by Western powers? Probably you did not. JAPANESE

Japan Pledges Abstinence As U.S. Reviews Nuke Posture
By Jaya Ramachandran IDN-InDepth NewsAnalysis BERLIN (IDN) - As the only country having suffered nuclear bombings and intermittently rattled by atomic tremors from Pyongyang, Japan is not only anxiously looking forward to a new orientation of the role and mission of the U.S. nuclear forces in the next five to ten years, but also trying to influence Washington's decisions. JAPANESE

Climate Change is Killing People in Drylands’
Ramesh Jaura talks to UN Assistant Secretary General Luc Gnacadja IDN-InDepth NewsInterview BERLIN (IDN) - “Enhancing soils anywhere enhances life everywhere,” says UN’s top official Luc Gnacadja, who is tasked with combating land degradation and drought – not only in Africa, the most vulnerable continent, but all along the drylands belt running from Latin America through Sahel and Asia. GERMAN

People's Pressure Vital For A Nuclear-Weapons Free World
By Taro Ichikawa IDN-InDepth NewsAnalysis TOKYO (IDN) – ‘Cities and citizens of the world, unite! Unite for a world without nuclear weapons!’ This is the clarion call Dr. Tadatoshi Akiba, Mayor of the City of Hiroshima, would like to hear resonate in the remotest corners of the globe. Because Dr. Akiba is convinced that "when cities become friends they become sister cities; when states become friends, they become military allies". JAPANESE

How Banks Colluded With Politicians To Mask Greek Crisis
By Badriya Khan* IDN-InDepth NewsAnalysis BARCELONA (IDN) – Have large international banks helped Greece -- and other countries -- falsify its official figures about the real magnitude of its debts? The question has not been raised by an anti-capitalism activist, but by the leader of one of the major Western market-based liberal economies, who has also provided a shocking, implicit answer to it. It would be a disgrace if it turned out to be true that banks that already pushed us to the edge of the abyss were also party to falsifying Greek statistics, said German Chancellor Angela Merkel on February 17. JAPANESE

Illicit Wildlife Trade Third Largest After Arms, Drugs
By Babukar Kashka IDN-InDepth NewsAnalysis NAIROBI (IDN) - With an estimated value of up to 20 billion dollars a year, the booming illegal trade in wildlife, which is vital to the whole system of life including human life, is reported to be the world’s third largest illicit business after arms and drugs. GERMAN

UN Atomic Energy Agency Combats Malnutrition
By Clive Banerjee IDN-InDepth NewsAnalysis VIENNA (IDN) – More than six million children in developing lands die of malnutrition every year. Keen to remedy this unacceptable situation, a United Nations agency has started an ambitious project. GERMAN

COMMUNICATING UNITED NATIONS: ‘We Would Like To Be Creative’
Ramesh Jaura Talks To UN Under-Secretary-General KIYO AKASAKA IDN-InDepth NewsInterview BERLIN/NEW YORK (IDN) - Imagine blockbusters made in Bollywood and Hollywood with disarmament, climate change, millennium development goals and women as central themes – and the opening scenes showing a sign that says: “United Nations. It’s your world.”  JAPANESE

DEVELOPMENT: ‘Small is Significant’
By IDN Global Desk IDN-InDepth NewsAnalysis (IDN) - About 500 million smallholder farms provide for 20 percent of world food production and almost 2 billion people comprising one third of humanity depend on what these smallholder farms produce. The farm households are living on less than two dollars a day. But there are signs that they are being increasingly recognised as part of the solution to the food insecurity and poverty challenges, says Kanayo F. Nwanze, President of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the United Nations rural poverty agency. READ IN THE BRUNEI TIMES | GERMAN | JAPANESE

CATASTROPHE IN HAITI: The Natural and Not-So-Natural Factors
BY ASHLEY SMITH* IDN-InDepth NewsAnalysis BURLINGTON, USA (IDN) - A devastating earthquake, the worst in 200 years, struck Port-au-Prince on January 12, laying waste to the city and killing untold numbers of people. The quake measured 7.0 on the Richter scale, and detonated more than 30 aftershocks, all more than 4.5 in magnitude, through the night and into the next morning. GERMAN

GLOBAL ECONOMY: Mammon and Faith Hand in Hand?
BY JAYA RAMACHANDRAN IDN-InDepth NewsAnalysis GENEVA (IDN) - What has Mammon to do with ethics and values? A unique new public opinion poll reveals that an overwhelming segment of the younger generation believes that the basic tenets of faith must be integrated into efforts for shaping global, regional and economic agendas.
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MARTIN LUTHER KING DAY: Reflections On Race Relations
BY ERNEST COREA IDN-InDepth NewsAnalysis WASHINGTON DC (IDN) - Senseless statements by a senior Senator and a defunct politician stirred the race relations pot even as most of the country prepared to celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. (MLK) Day, in honour of his life and work and his enduring legacy. An ordained and practicing Christian minister, he was a committed follower of Mahatma Gandhi whose world view and political philosophy he sought to fold into his own struggle for racial justice and equality. JAPANESE

VIEWPOINT: ‘Chile’s Accession to OECD a Major Milestone’
BY ANGEL GURRÍA, OECD SECRETARY-GENERAL IDN-InDepthNews Special PARIS (IDN) - Chile signs up as the 31st member of the OECD and its first member in South America on January 11. For Chile, this marks recognition of nearly two decades of democratic reform and sound economic policies. For the OECD, it is a major milestone in its mission to build a stronger, cleaner and fairer global economy. GERMAN

UNITED NATIONS: Afghanistan and Iraq Missions Remain Pretty Costly
BY NIRODE MASSON IDN-InDepth NewsAnalysis GENEVA (IDN) - The United Nations is poised to spend about 400 million U.S. dollars on special political missions in Afghanistan and Iraq in 2010. This amounts to 8 percent of the world body’s total regular budget of about 5.16 billion dollars for 2010-2011. GERMAN

JAPAN: Pride and Caution
BY RAMESH JAURA IDN-InDepthNews Interview with Former Prime Minister Toshiki Kaifu BERLIN (IDN) - At the age of 79, Toshiki Kaifu, former Prime Minister of Japan, continues to enjoy respect at home and abroad for his political acumen and humane approach to life and politics. In an interview with IDN-InDepthNews, he looks back with satisfaction and pride at some of the firsts in his active political life, views with great circumspection the present, and advises caution when policies impacting the future are on the anvil. JAPANESE

CLIMATE CHANGE: Bhutan Pledges Carbon Neutrality
BY NEDUP TSHERING* IDN-InDepthNews Service THIMPHU (IDN) – The under-reported Bhutan’s National Adaptation Programme of Action (NAPA) to combat climate change recognizes that the landlocked South Asian nation is highly vulnerable to climate change. With its fragile ecosystem, glacier lake outburst floods in the northern mountains constitute an ever-present threat. Of the 2,674 glacial lakes in Bhutan, 24 are considered to be potentially dangerous, says a new report. JAPANESE

HEALTH CARE IN THE U.S.: And On The 26th Day They Rested
BY ERNEST COREA IDN-InDepth NewsAnalysis WASHINGTON DC (IDN) - The threat by the U.S. Senate’s opponents of health care reform to stall a vote on draft legislation “until hell freezes over” collapsed shortly after 7 a.m. on December 24, 2009, giving millions of Americans their first share of an elusive right: affordable health care. The Senate’s ‘Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act’ was adopted by a 60-39 majority. Vice President Joe Biden, exercising a constitutional prerogative, presided at this historic session. JAPANESE

GLOBAL ECONOMY: ‘Over $1 Trillion Invested in Green’
BY J. CHANDLER IDN-InDepthNews Service TORONTO (IDN) - Private investors from industrialised and emerging economies have invested a record amount of more than 1.248 trillion USD ($1,248,740,645,993.00) since 2007 in promoting technological innovation and resource efficiency that will accelerate environmentally and socially sustainable industrial growth and economic development throughout the world. JAPANESE

CORRUPTION: The Rich Harm The Poor
BY JUTTA WOLF IDN-InDepthNews Service BERLIN (IDN) - The global civil society organisation Transparency International is unrelenting in the fight against corruption world wide. One of the tools at its disposal is the annual Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) that provides valuable information about progress made in combating an evil that continues to eat into the vitals of rich and poor countries, leaving the poorest on the verge of financial and economic ruin. Bribery, cartels and other corrupt practices undermine competition and contribute to massive loss of resources for development in all countries, especially the poorest ones. JAPANESE

NUCLEAR ABOLITION: Commission Spreads Tainted Joy
BY TARO ICHIKAWA IDN-InDepthNews Service TOKYO (IDN) - Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama and his Australian counterpart Kevin Rudd had reason to rejoice when they received and launched the report of the International Commission on Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament (ICNND), calling for a cut of more than 90 percent in the world’s nuclear arsenals by 2025. JAPANESE

21st CENTURY PARTNERSHIPS: ‘Pacific President’ on First Visit to Asia
BY ERNEST COREA IDN-InDepthNews Service WASHINGTON DC (IDN) - Much has happened since President Barack Obama made his four-nations-in-eight-days visit to Asia. The first state visit of a foreign leader (India’s Prime Minister Manmohan Singh) hosted by Obama, and the ninth round of strategic consultations between the president and his advisers on which direction to take in Afghanistan, are behind us. The groaning tables and traveling travails of Thanksgiving Day are more on people’s minds than Obama’s walk up the majestic Great Wall of China.
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PERSPECTIVES: Nuclear Power ‘Yes’ – Nuclear Proliferation ‘No’
BY CLIVE BANERJEE IDN-InDepthNews Service VIENNA (IDN) - Nuclear power is a dirty word for those who champion the cause of clean energy. It needs some guts, therefore, to take up the cudgels on behalf of the atom as an important source of non-fossil energy. This is precisely what Yukiya Amano, the veteran Japanese diplomat, did on Dec. 9, seven days after taking charge of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). JAPANESE

U.S.-JAPAN ACCORD: Seeking a Nuke Free World
BY ERNEST COREA IDN-InDepthNews Service WASHINGTON DC (IDN) - Japan, the only country to be the target of atom bombs, and the U.S., the only country to drop them, firmly committed themselves to working towards a nuclear weapons free world, when President Barack Obama visited Japan during his first presidential tour of Asia.
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Q&A: ’Japan Has the Potential to Be a Constructive Global Player'
TARO ICHIKAWA INTERVIEWS NEW KOMEI PARTY CHIEF NATSUO YAMAGUCHI IDN-InDepthNews Service TOKYO (IDN) – Japan should play an active role in supporting efforts toward a nuclear weapons free world, without jeopardizing its close and trusted relations with the United States, says Natsuo Yamaguchi, president of the New Komei Party, the country's third largest political party that has promoted and pursued initiatives to enhance peace and protect the vulnerable in Japanese society since 1964. Against the backdrop of its close and "vital" relations with the U.S. and growing understanding with China, dating back to more than three decades, Japan has the potential to act as a bridge between the United States and China as the two countries move towards confidence-building, avers the 57-year old Yamaguchi. JAPANESE

AFGHANISTAN: ‘Say Af-Pak and Face a Fine’
BY ERNEST COREA IDN-InDepthNews Service WASHINGTON DC (IDN) - The contrived label “Af-Pak” should be banned, and anybody who uses it should be fined, says U.S. Congressman Adam Smith who chairs the House of Representatives Armed Services Subcommittee on Terrorism, Unconventional Threats, and Capabilities. His comment was made to a group of academics, diplomats, journalists and others whom he addressed recently on the topic ‘Committing to a Strategy for Success in Uncertain Times’. JAPANESE

CLIMATE CHANGE: Blowing Hot and Cold
BY JAYA RAMACHANDRAN IDN-InDepthNews Service BARCELONA (IDN) – As the milestone UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen draws closer, hot and cold blowing is gathering momentum. This became obvious as the last negotiating session before the Conference kicked off Nov. 2 in Barcelona, Friends of the Earth International (FoEI) called on President Obama to earn the Nobel Prize he was given for his efforts to strengthen international diplomacy. JAPANESE

DISARMAMENT: Toward A Nuke-Free Germany?
BY RAMESH JAURA IDN-InDepthNews Service BERLIN (IDN) - The new conservative-liberal coalition government wants the United States to withdraw all nuclear weapons still deployed in Germany despite the fall of the Berlin Wall, end of the cold war and re-unification twenty years ago. Confirming the goal, Chancellor Angela Merkel and designated Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle announced Oct 25 and the previous day that they would take up the issue with the U.S. administration. JAPANESE

DISARMAMENT: Closer To Making Utopia Feasible?
BY TARO ICHIKAWA IDN-InDepthNews Service HIROSHIMA (IDN) – “What we see here is tragic, but even more tragic is all that was lost without a trace,” said Yoriko Kawaguchi as tears welled up in her eyes. She had just completed a tour of the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum. JAPANESE

MIDDLE EAST: Are France, U.S. Pushing Arabs Into Nuclear Race?
BY FAREED MAHDY* IDN-InDepthNews Service ISTANBUL (IDN) - The oil-rich United Arab Emirates’ decision to build nuclear reactors on its soil has unleashed a frenetic, politically backed competition between giant corporations from France, U.S., Japan and South Korea, to win the $40 billion bid for this project, which may lead to a nuclear race involving other Gulf Arab states. The UAE president Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed al Nahyan signed on Oct. 4, a nuclear strategy and a new law to regulate the production and development of nuclear energy in the seven-emirate federation that he chairs. JAPANESE

PAKISTAN: The Beginning of the End of Terrorism?
BY ISHTIAQ AHMED * IDN-InDepthNews Service SINGAPORE (IDN) - The reported death of the Pakistan Taleban leader, Baitullah Mehsud, is a major development in the ongoing struggle against terrorism. It carries crucial implications not only for peace and normalcy in Pakistan, but also in South Asia and indeed the wider world. Pakistan should not relent now. It is in Pakistan’s best interest to dismantle the terrorist networks that still exist in its territory, notwithstanding the formal ban on them. JAPANESE

DISARMAMENT: UN Conference Mulls Over Nuclear Abolition
BY TARO ICHIKAWA IDN-InDepth News Service TOKYO (IDN) - If a world without nuclear weapons is not to remain distant and just a dream, the nuclear haves must demonstrate political will, leadership and flexibility at the landmark Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT) Review Conference slated for May next year in New York. JAPANESE

DISARMAMENT: Africa Becomes World's Largest Nuclear Free Continent
BY FAREED MAHDY IDN-InDepthNews Service Special Correspondent CAIRO (IDN) - Africa, the world's second-largest and second most-populous continent after Asia has now become the world's largest nuclear free zone comprising 53 countries with about one billion people. ARABIC | JAPANESE

DISARMAMENT: Egypt Rejects U.S. Nuclear Umbrella
BY FAREED MAHDY IDN-InDepthNews Service (IDN Middle East Special Correspondent) - A spectre haunted the U.S.-Egyptian summit -- the spectre of a U.S. nuclear umbrella for the Middle East. In run-up to President Hosni Mubarak's first Washington visit in five years, both the Egyptian leader and his senior aides categorically rejected an undeclared U.S. offer to guarantee defence of the region against atomic weapons as part of a comprehensive Middle East peace plan. ARABIC |  JAPANESE

RIGHTS: Millions of Slaves for Sale
BY BABUKAR KASHKA IDN-InDepthNews Service (IDN Human Rights Desk) - "After weapons and drugs, human trafficking is the third most lucrative criminal enterprise in the world." This statement, referring to three atrocious man-made murdering tools, appears on the presentation page of the multimedia web project on sex trafficking, The Price of Sex, a huge task undertaken by Bulgarian photojournalist Mimi Chakarova. JAPANESE

GLOBAL ATTITUDES: The Puzzling Impact of Obama's 'Glasnost'
BY ERNEST COREA IDN-InDepthNews Service WASHINGTON DC (IDN) - The most recent international public opinion survey conducted by the highly respected Pew Research Center contains within it the seeds of a fascinating riddle. In this instance, the answer is available as well. The question: What works almost everywhere else but does not in Pakistan, the Palestinian territories and Turkey? If you cannot think of the correct answer straightaway, give yourself 30 seconds and try a guess, however wild it might be. No? You are not in the guessing game? Well, the answer is straightforward: The Obama Effect. JAPANESE

GLOBAL GOVERNANCE: Is the G8’s Variable Geometry Sustainable?
BY RUTH DAVIS AND ANDREW SCHRUMM LONDON | WATERLOO, Canada (IDN) - The writing may finally be on the wall for the traditional G8 Summit. No longer can the eight convene effectively without the strong participation of the major economies of the global South. JAPANESE

SOUTH-SOUTH: BRICS Economies Gathering Critical Mass
BY IDN GLOBAL ECONOMY DESK BERLIN (IDN) - Quietly but definitely, the economies of BRICS -- comprising Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa -- are not only reinforcing pride in South-South economic relations, but also emerging as an integral component of the world economy that they might begin to dominate in the next four decades. GERMAN

RIGHTS: Who Is Afraid of 300 Million Miserables?
BY BAHER KAMAL* MADRID (IDN) - There is a nation that does not appear on any map, has no name, no religion, and no borders nor laws. It is ruled by unidentified pundits and nobody recognises it. Its peoples were not born in the same land; neither do they know each other. But they are all hard workers and they certainly enrich the first world, the second world, the third world, and the international banking system. GERMAN | JAPANESE

RIGHTS: A Story of Camels and Baby-Slaves
BY BABUKAR KASHKA (IDN Middle East Desk) - Apparently, human beings have managed to assimilate the crabs’ ability to walk forth and back with equal ease. This is evident in many human activities, particularly in the field of human rights, where bigger steps backward often reverse smaller steps forward. The case of the camel child-jockeys in the Middle East is just one more clamorous example. JAPANESE

NORTH KOREA: Nuclear Weapons on an Empty Stomach?
BY THALIF DEEN SEOUL | NEW YORK (IDN) - The stories emanating from the hermetically-sealed North Korea are the stuff of diplomatic legends. Described as one of the world's most closed societies, North Korea has always remained a political enigma. Is Kim Jong-il, North Korea's "dear leader", incapacitated with a stroke? If so, are the military generals really running the country? How credible are rumours that his third and youngest son, Kim Jong-un, has been designated the current ruler's anointed successor? And did the son graduate from an international school in Switzerland, under the assumed name of Park Choi? JAPANESE

CLIMATE CHANGE: China Tables Tough Agenda For Copenhagen
BY RAMESH JAURA BERLIN (IDN) - With an eye on the critical Copenhagen climate change conference in December, China is asking industrial countries to slash their greenhouse gas emissions by no less than 40 percent by 2020 from 1990 levels. In a new document posted on the website of the country's economic policy-making National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), China is also calling upon the rich countries to provide at least 0.5 to 1 percent of their annual gross domestic product to help developing countries grapple with climate change. GERMAN

THE GULF OF ADEN: Why Are Warships Rushing There?
BY BAHER KAMAL MADRID (IDN) - With the apparently hard to refute excuse of protecting their ships and the lives of their innocent civilian sailors against barbarian piracy actions by Somali groups, war vessels have been rushed to the Gulf of Aden – situated at the South end of the Red Sea, facing the so-called Horn of Africa, and giving access and exit to and from also the so-called Arabian Sea and from there to the open ocean. JAPANESE

DISARMAMENT: German Peace Movement Gathers Momentum
BY JULIO GODOY BERLIN (IDN) It is indeed an irony of history. The U.S.-led NATOs decision to station nuclear weapons across Western Europe gave birth and clout to the German peace movement. Thirty years later, it is back in the news, this time vigorously campaigning for U.S. President Barack Obamas proposals. JAPANESE

G20: Japan Carries African Concerns to London
BY RAMESH JAURA BERLIN (IDN) Japan, the worlds second largest economy, is calling for global initiatives to reactivate financial flows to Africa, including government grants, concessional loans, lines of credit and additional instruments. This is the crux of a message Prime Minister Taro Aso is carrying to the G20 summit in London Thursday, Japan’s ambassador Takahiro Shinyo to Germany told German parliamentarians on March 26. JAPANESE