Environment

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is set to sign a Memorandum of Understanding with the World Bank marking World Water Day today at the bank’s Washington headquarters. The MOU will strengthen support to developing countries seeking a water secure future, the State Department said.

Water is a paradoxical commodity: It seems free and plentiful, yet its supply is under tremendous strain. Use of fresh water has more than doubled in the past 50 years, and many fear that we are coming close to a frightening breaking point, a world where chronic water shortages for farmers, businesses and people are the norm. Some experts even see international conflict emerging over access to dwindling supplies.

By 2050, the world's cities will have to support 3 billion more inhabitants, mostly in developing countries, with crucial investments needed in three areas: water, energy, and transportation. Several of the planet's top city planning and environmental business experts gathered at Harvard Business School earlier this month to discuss available options.

Key concepts include:

What the United States can learn from the tiny island nation of Mauritius.  Suppose someone were to describe to you a small country that provided free education through university for all of its citizens, transportation for school children, and free health care—including heart surgery—for all. You might suspect that such a country is either phenomenally rich or on the fast track to fiscal crisis.

Once upon a time, Social Security was considered the "third rail" of American politics. The "third rail" is the train track that carries the high-voltage power; touching it means instant death.

The "third rail" metaphor has for decades been applied to Social Security, a government program so popular with the American public that proposing any changes in it would mean political death to the politician.

The EU's Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) is the ideal environment for laundering money - and if such a scandal emerges, it will mean the end of the cap-and-trade programme, a leading investment banker has warned.  

Teodorin's World: Playboy bunnies. $2 million Bugattis. Bags full of cash. Meet the world's richest minister of agriculture and forestry.

What might the Arab uprising mean for the world? No one knows the answer to this question. But this should not prevent one from making a guess at the range of uncertainty.

Two men have been injured in what officials say was an accidental shooting at a central Illinois gun show.

Every time there is a new shooting tragedy the spokespeople from the NRA have to create a response. I’ve heard enough of them to anticipate their verbiage. Here is my impression of an NRA supporter’s response.  I think it will go a little like this:

The West has to deal with tyrants, but it should do so on its own terms

LESS than two years ago, at the G8 summit in L’Aquila in Italy, prime ministers and presidents sat down to talk about world trade and food security with Muammar Qaddafi. Today Libya’s tyrant is paying mercenaries to shoot his people in the streets like “rats” and “cockroaches”.