Campaigners demand Jersey legal loophole be closed as financiers seek $100m from the DRC

Britain is being urged to help close down a legal loophole that lets financiers known as "vulture funds" use courts in Jersey to claim hundreds of millions of pounds from the world's poorest countries.

PARIS -- A fundamental change is needed in power generation, with a greater and more urgent investment required in renewables used in all industries, including the metals sector, an executive at the International Energy Agency said Thursday.

Greece sneezed, and now most of Europe has a cold. The European debt crisis has already spread like a virus from Greece to Ireland and Portugal, and other countries are now at risk: Spain, and Italy are probable candidates for financial problems.

Contagion also has much to do with actual economic links among countries. Researchers have identified financial ties in particular as responsible for the “fast and furious” spread of crisis from one country to another. Trading activity between countries, however, can propagate economic sickness more slowly.

CHILDREN LINE UP for hot dogs and orange juice at a project run by Save the Children in Parys, South Africa. Virtually everywhere, infant mortality is down and life expectancy is up.

Stepping into the public square to announce that foreign aid is important and effective can be lonely work. As someone who has attempted to make that case over the past decade, I can assure you that the world is often eager to hear just the opposite.

But aid money can and does work. It improves people's lives and makes the world a better and safer place.

Leaked cables show how nations are carving up pristine wilderness