Trade : India, South Africa challenge continuing moratorium on e-com duties (PRIV)
(D. Ravi Kanth, Geneva)
India and South Africa on Tuesday challen ged the global e-commerce giants - the United States, China, and the European U nion among others - at the World Trade Organization for continuing the moratoriu m on customs duties on electronic transmissions. The moratorium, they pointed ou t, has adverse fiscal implications and deleterious effects on the digital industri alization of developing and least-developed countries, trade envoys told SUNS.

Opinion : Multilateralism undermined by globalization's discontents (PRIV)
(IPS, Sydney/Kuala Lumpur)
Sydney/Kuala Lumpur, 28 Nov (IPS/Anis Chowdhury and Jomo Kwame Sundaram*) -- On 24 October 1945, the world's most inclusive multilateral institution, the United Nations, was born to "save succeeding generations f rom the scourge of war, ... reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights, ... establi sh conditions under which justice and respect for the obligations arising from treaties and other sources of international law can be maintained, and to promote so cial progress and better standards of life in larger freedom" (UN Charter: Pream ble).

Opinion : Asia-Pacific takes stock of ambitious development targets (PRIV)
(IPS, Bangkok)
Ministers and senior policy-makers across Asia and the Pacific are gathered in Bangkok this week to focus on population dynamics at a crucial time for the region.

Mexico : President-elect's security plan disappoints civil society (PRIV)
(IPS, Mexico City)
"Setback" and "disillusionment" were the terms used by Yolanda Moran, a mother whose son was the victim of forced disappearance, to describe the security plan outlined by Mexican president-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who takes office on Dec. 1.