The Tsunami Evaluation Committee, consisting of UN agencies and other NGOs, described the aid commitments as the most generous and immediately funded humanitarian response in history.

One extra benefit of working in the humanitarian sector after a major disaster is that by treating the sick and the injured, we can do more than help survivors - we can also enhance the image of our own country overseas.

Representatives from the Chinese and Thai governments signed bilateral agreements worth more than 62 billion yuan. The trade and development accords are yet another instance of Beijing engaging in a soft power approach to diplomacy with its Southeast Asian neighbors.

The head of the nation's global development agency said Wednesday he will step down from his post in February, following an announcement by the U.S. government that it would start talks toward restoring diplomatic relations with Cuba.

Cuba is offering to throw the entire weight of its international medical mission at stopping the spread of Ebola and avoiding— in the words of Raul Castro— “a humanitarian crisis of unpredictable consequences.”

Israel, whose researchers are doing pathfinding work in the fight against Ebola fever that is spreading in Western Africa and beyond, will send three mobile emergency clinics to the region.

The largest climate change demonstration in history took place on Sunday. According to organizers of thePeople’s Climate March, an estimated 400,000 people participated in the protest in New York. For comparison, the size of the march was comparable to the scale of the February 15 anti-war demonstration in 2003. The demonstration at the Copenhagen Summit in 2009 mobilized about 100,000 people, but US demonstrations at that time generally mobilized fewer than 1,000 people.