News


Iran/Turkey: Ebtekar Calls for Water Diplomacy with Turkey

Jun 18, 2017 | Financial Tribune

Massoumeh Ebtekar, the head of the Department of Environment, has called on the Foreign Ministry to help convince Turkey to abandon its obsession with dam…


Afghanistan/Iran: Iran, Afghanistan Start Talks in Five Strategic Fields

Jun 17, 2017 | Mehdi Sepahvand, Trend

A large delegation of Afghan officials is visiting Tehran today to start a previously arranged series of talks in five strategic fields, Mehr news agency…


Colombia: Why Colombia’s Economic Growth Slowed in 1Q17

Jun 16, 2017 | Mary Sadler, Market Realist

The third-largest economy in Latin America (ILF), Colombia (GXG) is growing at a slower pace in 2017 amid its external and domestic shocks. The Colombian…


Myanmar: MTE to Resume Timber Extraction from Taninthayi Mountains

Jun 16, 2017 | Zaw Moe Oo, Eleven

Myanma Timber Enterprise will resume its activities to extract 17,000 tonnes of timber from Taninthayi mountain range. The timber will be taken from a protected…


Myanmar: Deadly Dengue Fever on the Rise

Jun 16, 2017 | May Thet Hnin, Global New Light of Myanmar

The number of cases of dengue haemorrhagic fever (DHF) has dramatically increased over the last five months due to climate change, increased breeding rates of…


South Sudan: South Sudan Ministry of Petroleum Launches Open Tender for Petroleum Audit

Jun 16, 2017 | Globe Newswire

South Sudan’s government will commission an audit of national oil production and petroleum industry activities, the Ministry of Petroleum announced today. The Ministry invites companies…


Coming Kurdish Vote Could Change the Mid East & Oil Markets as We Know It

Jun 15, 2017 | Ellen R. Wald

The Kurds are a distinct ethnic group of people living in parts of Iraq, Turkey, Iran and Syria. Over the past thirty-five years they have…


Food Security: UN Agencies Appeal for Support to Stop Acute Food Crises Driven by Conflict and Drought

Jun 15, 2017 | Stefan Jungcurt, International Institute for Sustainable Development

UN agencies have released updated reporting on acute and imminent famine and set forth additional measures addressing food security and hunger in countries facing crises…


Liberia: MOA, Partners Begin Agriculture Land Use and Suitability Mapping

Jun 15, 2017 | Judoemue Kollie, Liberian Observer

Liberia is endowed with natural resources and is home to two-thirds of West Africa’s remaining rainforest. However, due to the lack of state-of-the art technology…


Iraq/Kurdistan: UN Won’t Play Any Role in Iraqi Kurds’ Independence Vote

Jun 15, 2017 | Sinan Salaheddin, Associated Press

The United Nations said it will not be “engaged in any way or form” in the process surrounding the independence referendum in Iraq’s northern semi-autonomous…


South Sudan: South Sudan to Regulate Gold Production amid Illegal Siphoning

Jun 15, 2017 | Denis Elamu, Xinhua

South Sudan seeks to regulate the hitherto chaotic gold production from illegal miners after having signed new exploration agreements with two foreign companies to boost…


Water and Conflict: Fighting Wars over a Precious Resource

Jun 14, 2017 | Peter Neill

We have been fighting wars over the most valuable resource on the planet since thousands of years B.C. We speak today of water wars as…


Myanmar: Irrawaddy Farmers Demand Return of Confiscated Land

Jun 14, 2017 | Salai Thant Zin, Irrawaddy

Farmers in Irrawaddy Division’s Myaungmya Township demanded the divisional government return more than 200 acres of land confiscated, and subsequently abandoned, by Myanmar’s military to…


Myanmar: Q-and-A on Seized Land ‘Irritates’ Hluttaw Speaker

Jun 14, 2017 | Myanmar Times

Questions and answers pertaining to confiscated land are irritating, Pyithu Hluttaw Speaker U Win Myint told the Hluttaw session yesterday. His remarks came when the…


Liberia: 23 Sent to Court in Maryland

Jun 14, 2017 | New Dawn

Police in Maryland County have arrested and forwarded to the Harper Magisterial court 23 suspects in connection with a recent violence land dispute in the…


Food Insecurity Strains Deepen amid Civil Conflict and Drought

Jun 13, 2017 | UN Food and Agriculture Organisation

8 June 2017, Rome--Large agricultural harvests in some regions of the world are buoying global food supply conditions, but protracted fighting and unrest are increasing…


Afghanistan: Afghan Wetlands Become UN-Protected Bird Sanctuary

Jun 13, 2017 | Sky News

Hundreds of migratory bird species that flock to an Afghan marsh on the outskirts of war-torn Kabul are to receive UN protection. Once a royal…


Myanmar: Land Compensation Issue Remains Unresolved

Jun 13, 2017 | Khin Su Wai, Myanmar Times

Although a verbal promise had been made for compensation to be paid for lands which were seized from a subsidiary of a Chinese firm Wanbao…


Iraq/Kurdistan/Russia: Iraqi Kurdistan-Russia Oil Deal Could Have Major Implications for Region

Jun 12, 2017 | Al-Monitor, Mahmut Bozarslan

Iraq's central government for years has opposed the sale of Iraqi oil by the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in northern Iraq. The KRG’s biggest oil…


Myanmar: Workers Abandon Kachin Mines Due to Military Threat

Jun 12, 2017 | Paing Soe, Democratic Voice of Burma

Hundreds of workers and their families have abandoned the gold and amber mines in Tanai, northern Kachin State, following threats from the Burmese military, which…


Iraq: Iraq Oil Ministry Companies Must Become Profitable - Minister

Jun 12, 2017 | Ahmed Rasheed, Reuters

Iraq's Oil Minister Jabar al-Luaibi says oil ministry companies must work on becoming profitable by the end of 2017. Luaibi encourages oil ministry companies to…


Ethiopia/South Sudan: Ethiopia, South Sudan to Develop Joint Border Infrastructure Development Projects

Jun 12, 2017 | Xinhua

Ethiopia and the world's newest nation South Sudan are to develop joint infrastructure development projects that would help create regional economic interconnection. The statement was…


Iraq/Kurdistan: Iraqi Christians Complain about Land-Grabbing by Kurds – USCIRF Report

Jun 11, 2017 | Lorraine Caballero, Christian Daily

Iraqi Christians who have fled to Kurdistan to escape the atrocities of the Islamic State in their hometowns have complained that ethnic Kurds are seizing…


Colombia: Colombia is Fighting Cocaine by Making Coca Farmers Choose “Poverty or Prison”

Jun 10, 2017 | Christopher Crosby, Vice

Under a canopy hiding his laboratorio from patrolling military aircraft, Ricardo shreds green coca leaves until they carpet the jungle floor like confetti. It’s an initial step in a…


South Sudan: South Sudan Seeks More Investment in Oil Sector

Jun 10, 2017 | Xinhua

South Sudan has invited more oil companies to invest in exploration, production and distribution in order to double the country's daily output, Petroleum Minister Ezekiel…


Advancing U.S. Prosperity and Security in a Thirsty World

Jun 9, 2017 | Jane Harman & Carter Roberts

The waters of Lake Chad sustain 70 million people in four countries. Beginning in the 1970s, the 25,000-square-kilometer lake began shrinking due to excessive drawdown…


Palestine: Palestinian Co-Director

Jun 9, 2017 | EcoPeace Middle East

Job Description:

Palestinian Co-Director EcoPeace Middle East is a unique, 23 year old organization that brings together Jordanian, Palestinian, and Israeli environmentalists. Our primary objective…


Penn State Experts Promote Cacao as an Alternative to Illicit Crops in Colombia

Jun 9, 2017 | David Pacchioli

As codirectors of Penn State’s endowed cocoa research program and professors in the College of Agriculture, Mark Guiltinan and Siela Maximova work together all over…


Myanmar: State Agencies Face Legal Dispute over Pak Beng Dam

Jun 9, 2017 | Pratch Rujivanarom, Eleven

Citizens from eight Thai provinces along the Mekong River are suing state agencies for ill planning the Pak Beng hydropower dam. Various provinces are suing…


Colombia: As Colombia's FARC Disarms, Rebels Enlisted to Fight Deforestation

Jun 9, 2017 | Anastasia Moloney, Reuters

Seen from the air, muddy rivers snake through rolling forested hills stretching to the horizon in Colombia's southern province of Caqueta that for decades were…