Leaders of the 12 nations taking part in Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations hope for a free trade deal by the end of this year.

Over the past few weeks, much attention has been paid to the elec-tion in Germany, which is not only the European Union's largest economy but also one that will play a decisive role in addressing debt turmoil in the eurozone.

Continuous bombing waves, terrorist attacks and daily casualties in Iraq have broken out again, sparking concerns that the country is teetering on the edge of another civil conflict, similar to the bloody civil war that raged from 2006-09, following the US occupation.

For many years the global community has been hoping for a peaceful end to the Palestine-Israel conflict, so when both sides held their first peace negotiations after nearly three years of deadlock many people across the world breathed a sigh of relief.

Measures to tackle the haze that has blighted parts of Southeast Asia dominated the meeting of environment ministers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on Wednesday.

A new political crisis in Egypt, the Arab world's most populous state and currently going through a period of change, will badly affect the country's economy which is already on the brink of collapse.

It is not without reason that the recent gathering of the world's eight leading industrialised nations (G-8), which was supposed to focus on economic and financial issues, quickly descended into a fierce debate on the political crisis in Syria.

During the global economic crisis, developed countries have increasingly targeted Africa as a potential market with which to trade in order to boost their sluggish economies and global leaders are travelling to Africa to try and gain a foothold in one of the world's fastest-growing economies.

Leaders from Asia-Pacific nations warned at the second Asia-Pacific Water Summit in Chiang Mai on Monday that fierce competition for water could trigger conflict in the region unless nations co-operate to share water resources.