Can music bring together the entire human race? That's the belief of "Playing For Change", a group of young Americans who travel the world recording buskers, amateur choirs and singers of every nationality, and then put them on the same record. Read more and see the videos...

The anti-capitalist World Social Forum is in its ninth year. But while this year's event, held in Belem, has attracted an impressive 100,000 people, the crowds aren't as large as in 2005, when participants in Porto Alegré, Brazil, numbered 155,000. One of our Observers, who attended both forums, compares the two. Read more...

The ninth World Social Forum, in Belem, north Brazil, has attracted a massive 100,000 leftist activists this year. One of them is Stéphane Le Borgne, a French entrepreneur who runs a fair trade business. He tells us what's going on. Read more and see his photos...

In a desperate attempt to stabilise the world's financial markets, the US Federal Reserve is injecting an enormous 180 billion dollars into the system. A trader and a broker tell us what it's like to work in the ever-sinking financial sector. Read more...

Surprised to find photos of a young Chinese factory worker on his new iPhone, a British Apple customer decided to post the pictures online. The girl in the pics has managed to catch the attention of everybody, including her boss... Read more.