Kashmir has for decades been a bone of contention between India and Pakistan over which the two countries have fought wars.

Approximately two -thirds of Ecuador’s population voted “yes” this autumn in a historic, national referendum – a result that reflects the vast majority’s hopeful expectations of political change. By an overwhelming margin, the Ecuadorians backed their President, Rafael Correa, in voting for a new progressive constitution - the first in the world to grant Nature the same inalienable rights as human beings.

The maneuvering of the world’s biggest rice exporter Thailand to get the Philippines, the world’s biggest rice importer, to speed up liberalization of its rice sector during the ASEAN summit meeting this weekend highlights the hazards of entering into free trade deals from a position of weakness. The local economy is under threat not just from First World countries like the United States, Japan and the European Union but also from other Third World countries. Thailand is understandably out to promote its export interests even if this is at the expense of the Philippines.

The recent typhoons highlighted land and crop use conversion as a factor in worsening the effects of disasters on food production and the need to ensure adequate land for food production. However amidst all these, government has reserved more agricultural land for export crops and use of foreign agro-corporations.