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The Belgian government is preparing a bill that will allow Belgian companies to mine raw materials on the bottom of the ocean. Given the rising scarcity of natural resources on land, it becomes more and more attractive to mine nickel, copper, cobalt and other ores from the depths of the world's oceans.

Indian-born writer Amitav Ghosh is not going for Asian exoticism in his novels. Rather, the novels of Ghosh – every inch a gentleman – are packed with historical details to highlight his observations of the world. He concludes: "If you separate trade from any sense of morality and responsibility, you get a completely deranged system."

In October 1990, after Fred Rwigyema's death on the third day the struggle to conquer Rwanda, Paul Kagame took over the command over the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) and led it to victory in July 1994. He became Vice-President and Minister of Defense in the transitional government installed after the Rwandan genocide. In March 2000, President Past ...

The civil war in Burundi now lies several years behind us. Since November 2003, when the CNDD-FDD integrated the transitional institutions, the rebels and the regular armed forces integrated their troops into a new national army. The country has had two elections which brought back majority rule. But this remains fragile. Burundi has made impressiv ...

You wake up one morning, and the world has turned upside down. From one day to the next, the mortgage on your house has doubled, the loan for your car tripled. Theatre director and civil activist Gunnar Sigurðsson (53) turned virtue out of necessity and filmed a documentary about the Icelandic crisis. Four years on, he looks back and ahead.