Due to economic uncertainty, a rise in inflation, various debt crises, and intense price pressures, global investors are returning to gold as a secure investment. The increase in demand has pushed the price of gold to a new high, fuelling an unprecedented mining boom in countries with rich mineral
We lead this week with the release of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime 'World Drug Report', revealing a rise in consumption of synthetic and prescription drugs. In other news we reflect on the likely withdrawal of Bolivia from the 1961 UN Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, and travel with Al Jaz
Despite a tense exchange over the Falkland islands between British Prime Minister David Cameron and Argentinian President Cristina Kirchner, another war over the islands looks highly unlikely any time soon. Instead, argues James Lockhart Smith, the conflict will continue to take a diplomatic cours
Pop singer Rihanna has offered to re-film the music video 'Man Down', in which she plays a rape victim who shoots her abuser. But was the controversy caused by the film's sexual and violent content, or because it shows a woman answering back on her own terms?
What do we need to be happy? The satisfaction of our basic needs? Independence? A positive lifestyle? Yes, says Matt Grist, but we must look beyond the individual towards deeper, narrative forms of happiness
The divergence between rhetoric and reality in the environmental policies of President Juan Manuel Santos points to real tensions between development and environment, between the desire to lead by example but not to sacrifice opportunities. But plain old corruption gets in the way too
We lead this weeks report with a message from the Drug Policy Alliance's Executive Director, Ethan Nadelmann, on the correlation between America's 40th anniversary of the war on drugs and prohibition related violence in Mexico. Ethan also discusses President Obama and recent U.S. medical marijuana
The Democracy Manifesto signals that the time has come to open ourselves to the many ways in which the demos, that is, the people, organize themselves around the world to take charge of their own destiny.
We lead this weeks report with news that at the 65th Session of the United Nations General Assembly, one of the UN's key human rights experts will call for a fundamental rethink of international drug policy in a thematic report which will be the clearest statement to date from within the UN system
The position of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and the Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas (ALBA) on the crisis in Libya has derailed the continent’s chance to support the revolutionary paradigm it should be spreading worldwide.
