Topic: Muhammad Yunus

Bangladesh factory collapse death toll passes 1,000

By Friday, May 10, the death toll from the Bangladesh factory collapse had reached 1,021, and more bodies are still being found. A fire at a nearby sweater factory highlighted that safety conditions in Bangladesh factories have not been improved in the two weeks since the factory collapse.

Change Agent World Bank unit, MasterCard Foundation boost small loans in Africa

They'll spend $37.4 million over five years to provide microfinancing, which helps people lift themselves out of poverty by starting or expanding small businesses, sending children to school, or improving farms.

Opinion: Selling organs to pay off debt: Microfinance needs reforms

Governments and microfinance institutions must continue taking steps to reform the industry and provide the impoverished with a variety of financial services, including savings options and grants, which better meet their needs.

Opportunity Fund helps opportunity knock for low-income borrowers

Micro-lending to the poor in the US is quietly growing. But the Opportunity Fund finds that helping people learn how to save is important too.

The bad – and good – news on microcredit

Making tiny loans to the poor may not create successful new businesses as often as once hoped. But it provides an unexpected benefit by supplying cash for other crucial needs such as schooling, health care – even food.

Micro-lending genius Yunus: Why he was done wrong

The Bangladeshi government's treatment of Muhammad Yunus, the Nobel Peace Prize winner who has lifted millions out of poverty with his micro-lending program, is shameful. And it does nothing to help the poor.

Mark Zuckerberg Facebook account hacked

The Mark Zuckerberg Facebook fan page was hacked this week. So who is the mysterious prankster that managed to steal Mark Zuckerberg's identity?

Ideas for a better world in 2011

In many ways, 2010 is a year you may want to relegate to the filing cabinet quickly. It began with a massive earthquake in Haiti and wound down with North Korea once again being an enfant terrible – bizarrely trying to conduct diplomacy through brinkmanship. In between came Toyota recalls and egg scares, pat downs at airports and unyielding unemployment numbers, too little money in the Irish treasury and too many bedbugs in American sheets. Oil gushed from the floor of the Gulf of Mexico for three months, mocking the best intentions of man and technology to stop it, while ash from a volcano in Iceland darkened Europe temporarily as much as its balance sheets. Yet not all was gloomy. The winter Olympics in Canada and the World Cup in South Africa dazzled with their displays of athletic prowess and national pride, becoming hearths around which the world gathered. In Switzerland, the world's largest atom smasher hurled two protons into each other at unfathomable speeds. Then came the year's most poignant moment – the heroic and improbable rescue of 33 miners from the clutches of the Chilean earth. There were many transitions, too – the return of the Republicans in Washington and the Tories in Britain, the scaling back of one war (Iraq) and the escalation of another (Afghanistan), the fall of some powers (Greece) and rise of others (China, Germany, Lady Gaga). To get the new year off to the right start, we decided to ask various thinkers for one idea each to make the world a better place in 2011. We plumbed poets and political figures, physicists and financiers, theologians and novelists. Some of the ideas are provocative, others quixotic. Some you will agree with, others you won't. But in the modest quest to stir a discussion – from academic salons to living rooms to government corridors – we offer these 25 ideas.

Opinion: A game changer for US-Pakistan relations

As officials from both countries meet for a high-level strategic dialogue this week, both Washington and Islamabad are frustrated. But a commitment to a long-term alliance is essential. And it can work, if both sides focus on three priorities.

Who were the previous 10 Nobel Peace Prize winners?

Imprisoned Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo won the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize Friday for his long and nonviolent struggle for human rights in his country. Here is a list of the past 10 Nobel Peace Prize winners and why the committee chose them.

Test your Nobel Peace Prize knowledge. Take our quiz.

Liu Xiaobo, a pro-democracy activist, won the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize Friday for his decades of non-violent struggle for human rights in China. Beijing was not impressed. Mr. Liu is currently in a Chinese prison serving out an 11-year sentence as the lead author of Chapter 08, a manifesto calling for free speech and multi-party elections. The Nobel Peace Prize is one of the richest and most prestigious awards in the world. The prize includes a $1.5 million award. But how much do you really know about the Nobel Peace Prize? Take our 15-question quiz.

At UN, elites mull Millennium Development Goals. Did the poor weigh in?

Talk of the Millennium Development Goals at the UN General Assembly this week’s brought home one very clear fact: Western thinking about development is elite-driven.

In India, warnings of a microfinance bubble

Lending to the poor has proved so profitable in India that microfinance institutions saw their loan portfolio jump from $252 million to $2.5 billion in two years, raising fears of a subprime-like microfinance bubble.

Difference Maker Extreme do-gooders – what makes them tick?

Five extraordinary social entrepreneurs talk about their defining moments - when the urge to change the world gathered such force they couldn't ignore it.

Banker to the Poor

Microfinance can mean a lot to the environment

Earthtalk: Little payments can jump-start a business and lead to greener communities.

Charities borrow for-profit strategies to do good

Hybrid businesses enlist nonprofit strategies as well to achieve selfless goals.

Afghanistan: Soviet failures echo for US

Control of roads and rural areas vexes coalition effort.

Letters to the Editor

Readers write about the People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran and morality in capitalism.

In Pakistani election, a big swing vote

In Punjab, which picks 148 of 272 parliamentary seats on Feb. 18, many remain undecided.

Opinion: How social business can create a world without poverty

We need 'social business' to couple the human heart to the capitalist system.