I met Tanvi, 21 year old, at the Girls20 Summit at Toronto in the summer of 2010. Hailing from New Delhi, India, Tanvi is the president and the founder of a very successful youth-led organization, Becoming I Foundation.

Post-earthquake Haiti has the most Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) per capita than any other country in the world. Sympathizing with the plight of Haitians, altruists around the world provided an estimated five billion U.S. dollars to NGOs and UN agencies to assist Haitians. However, much like with NGOs around the world, there is no accountability for this large sum of money or any mechanism to verify the effectiveness and efficiency of NGO projects.

Most of us have probably heard about the increasing importance placed on water security. Indeed, many development agencies are focusing on the field of environmental sustainability. But what exactly do such organizations mean when they refer to a “water secure world?”

Oil is the one word that has defined a century of U.S.-Iranian relations and, more broadly, contemporary international relations. From the 1950s oil nationalization crisis to the present embargoes in Iran, the debate over Iranian oil has come full circle. The future of Iranian oil exports is once again a topic fit for consideration.

Any smart individual studying preliminary economics would expect states with valuable natural resources, like oil, to be wealthy since they can sell expensive goods and have a higher standard of living. However, not all resource-rich states are wealthy. This seems to be the curse of the petro-states, as exemplified by countries like Nigeria, Algeria, Indonesia, Iran, Mexico and Venezuela.

It is the last week of August. It is sunny, with temperatures above 80 F. Obviously, there is nothing better than refreshing yourself with a tomato bath and maybe losing a shoe or two in the slippery frenzy. Every last Wednesday of August, people gather in Buñol in Valencia province of Spain to celebrate the La Tomatina festival. The festival has been known worldwide for more than twenty years, and promoted many times by travel agencies and artists during the Hindu color festival in India.

After a bizarre snowstorm in October, almost no snow throughout December and January, and another snowstorm in February followed by brief sunshine, it was impossible to predict what would happen next. Now, spring seems to be in a full swing, with warmth and greenery replacing the snow, but in the entire northern hemisphere, spring also means the bloom of pink and white cherry blossoms.

At the beginning of March, Vladimir Putin won a third presidential term in Russia. Last September, President Dmitry Medvedev asked former President of Russia and the current Prime Minister Putin if he would run for the upcoming elections. Putin agreed to campaign and represent the United Russia political party in the election.

As the long-expected opposition rally took place this Saturday in Moscow, between 10,000 and 20,000 demonstrators, according to Russian police and news agencies, flooded the streets. The attendance was less than that of previous demonstrations on Dec. 4, Dec. 27 and Feb 4. Does this indicate that the opposition is breaking apart? Does the opposition need time to re-organize?

President Nazarbayev of Kazakhstan congratulated Vladimir Putin his presidency through a telegram saying that he hoped Mr. Putin would apply all his “knowledge, efforts and experience to ensure further economic growth, social well-being, maintain political stability and enhance international image of Russia,” according to the Kazakh government website