From the tragedy of wars and terrorism to efforts to build peace; from global cooperation and solidarity to go-it-alone attitudes; from the grassroots-on-up to the UN-on-down in working towards the Millennium Development Goals; from recovery after natural disasters to the ongoing fight against climate change; from the expansion of HIV/AIDS to the rapid growth of scientific knowledge; and from dictatorship and repression to freedom, human rights and democracy, IPS has brought you facts and insight into the pressing issues of a complex globalised world, and will continue to do so as we head into the new year.
RSS FEED IDEMS: IPS Inter Press Service - CHALLENGES 2005-2006 The year past, the year ahead
- CHALLENGES 2007-2008: U.S. Election Fever May Delay Doha Talks
GENEVA, Jan 21 (IPS) - A busy negotiating schedule is lined up for this
year at the World Trade Organisation (WTO). The question remains
whether negotiators will have to continue passing the time as the
powers-that-be in Washington are consumed by pre-election
politics, or if the technical solutions which they have been
working on could, in fact, lead to a conclusion of the Doha
Development Round.
- CHALLENGES 2007-2008: Internal Problems Worry Iranians More
TEHRAN, Jan 21 (IPS) - While Iranians have legitimate worries that their
country may suffer a military attack by the United States or
become a victim of more sanctions for its nuclear policies,
analysts say that the real dangers in 2008 are internally
generated ones.
- POLITICS-JAPAN: Tectonic Upheavals Await Ruling LDP
WASHINGTON, Jan 20 (IPS) - The Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) has ruled Japan
for all but one of the last 53 years. But the LDP's
unpopularity, the rise of a strong second party with a
charismatic leader and a limp economy may combine to upend
Japanese politics in 2008.
- CHALLENGES 2007-2008: Wounded Vets Trade One Hell for Another
SAN FRANCISCO, California, Jan 15 (IPS) - Last year, the United States woke up to the reality
of hundreds of thousands of soldiers wounded in Iraq and
Afghanistan -- and began to grapple with what to do about it.
- CHALLENGES 2007-2008: The Green House Effect
SAN DIEGO, California, Jan 14 (IPS) - Environmentally-friendly buildings have evolved
from hippy habitats to office towers and shopping centres,
becoming a far more commonplace presence in city skylines and
communities throughout the United States, as well as overseas.
- ECONOMY-BANGLADESH: Stagnating Under 'Clean' Interim Government
DHAKA, Jan 14 (IPS) - Bangladesh's military-backed interim
government faced hard challenges on the political and economic
fronts as it stepped into its second year on the weekend.
- CHALLENGES 2007-2008: U.N. Remains Impotent as Captive of U.S.
UNITED NATIONS, Jan 10 (IPS) - As Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon begins his second
year in office, he has refused to claim any tangible successes
during 2007, nor has he laid out any clear-cut strategy to meet
the political and economic challenges facing the United Nations
in 2008.
- CHALLENGES 2007-2008: Cuban Economy in Need of Nourishment
HAVANA, Jan 4 (IPS) - Increasing food production is the main challenge to
be faced by the Cuban economy this year, to improve people’s
quality of life. It was one of the recurrent themes raised at the
popular debates convened on the government’s initiative in the
second half of 2007.
- CHALLENGES 2007-2008: Terror Prosecutions Shed More Heat Than Light
NEW YORK, Jan 2 (IPS) - The U.S. government's spotty record in
obtaining convictions of people charged with providing
"material support" to terrorist organisations is adding
new impetus to the efforts of prominent constitutional lawyers to
seek substantial changes in the law.
- CHALLENGES 2007-2008: Brazil Seeks Formula for Continued Growth
RIO DE JANEIRO, Jan 2 (IPS) - The Brazilian economy is finally coming close to
the dream of creating the "broad mass consumer market"
announced in 2002 as a campaign promise by President Luiz Inácio
Lula da Silva. But several hurdles still lie ahead.
- CHALLENGES 2007-2008: New Year Begins Unhappily In What Was Home
WASHINGTON, Jan 2 (IPS) - The end of 2007 produced a telltale indication of
what the New Year seems likely to bring to Iraq.
- CHALLENGES 2007-2008: Two Territories, No Nation
JERUSALEM, Jan 2 (IPS) - The year begins after Palestinian President Mahmoud
Abbas renewed peace talks with Israel that had been frozen for
seven years and agreeing with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert
to make every effort to forge a peace deal by the end of 2008
that would ensure the Palestinians an independent state.
- POLITICS-MALAYSIA: Election Year Fraught With Multiple Troubles
PENANG, Jan 2 (IPS) - Malaysia enters what is widely expected to be an
election year with its ruling coalition looking its frailest in
recent times. Economic grievances, inter-religious disputes and
unfulfilled pledges have spawned growing disillusionment with the
administration of Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi that could erode
popular support for the ruling coalition.
- CHALLENGES 2007-2008: Bush’s Twilight Year Looks Grim
WASHINGTON, Dec 30 (IPS) - If the last days of 2007 are any indication, U.S.
President George W. Bush’s last
year in office is shaping up as
grim and lonely.
- CHALLENGES 2007-2008: Surging Inflation Worries China's Leaders
BEIJING, Dec 30 (IPS) - For a former guerilla party that derives legitimacy
by providing economic prosperity to 1.3 billion people, the
revelation that Chinese Communist Party leaders, polled in a
recent survey, saw surging inflation as the biggest threat facing
them in 2008, was alarming.