Ecobreves – VENEZUELA: ChevronTexaco Supports School in Indigenous Area

An agricultural technical school attended by 400 children and adolescents in the Orinoco Delta, in eastern Venezuela, received 75,000 dollars from the U.S.-based oil giant ChevronTexaco for building repairs and equipment

LIBROS

The public monopolies for potable water and sanitation systems developed a basic infrastructure in Latin America that was unprecedented, writes Abel Mejía Betancourt in his article for the new magazine "Milenio Ambiental"

From Pioneer to Leader in Sustainability

Costa Rica could become the world's first example of "strong" sustainable development.

Protected Areas Threatened by Coca-Killing Herbicide

Colombia's environment minister is to appear before her country's Congress to explain why glyphosate herbicide is being used in protected areas.

Specter of Water War Looms Over Guaraní Aquifer

NGOs denounce an alleged Washington conspiracy to take over South America's Guaraní Aquifer. Officials and experts alike say it is a crazy notion.

RIGHTS-BRAZIL: Northeast Major Source of Trafficking Victims

An estimated 100,000 Brazilian girls and women fall prey each year to organised rings of people traffickers and are taken abroad, where many end up in the sex trade, according to experts.

MEDIA: Fewer Players, Less Freedom

Comcast's failed 66-billion-dollar bid for Disney in February brought the issue of Big Media to the fore. Now, Viacom, Liberty Media, Microsoft and even Internet firms like Yahoo! and InterActiveCorp might make a play for the firm.

Why should anyone care?

MEDIA: Fewer Players, Less Freedom

Comcast's 66-billion-dollar unsuccessful bid for Disney in February brought the issue of Big Media to the fore.

POLITICS: U.S. Arm-Twists Iraqis to Seek U.N. Help Before Jun. 30

Despite a rash of suicide attacks and roadside bombings directed at U.S. troops and foreigners in Iraq, Secretary-General Kofi Annan is preparing to send a team of U.N. officials back to Baghdad to help Iraqis hold elections and form a new civilian government.

RIGHTS-ARGENTINA: Pardon for Junta Members Ruled Unconstitutional

A federal judge in Argentina ruled Friday that two of the 10 presidential pardons that let the former commanders of the 1976-1983 military dictatorship off the hook are unconstitutional.

PETROLEUM: Prices Sky High on Iraq War Anniversary

A year after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, petroleum prices on the New York and London exchanges are at their highest point since the 1991 Gulf War.

SIERRA LEONE: Global Aid Needed to Make Diamond Trade Sparkle

Sierra Leone's 'blood' diamonds could be transformed into 'development' gems if the international community provides a helping hand, says a report released Thursday.

DEVELOPMENT-LATIN AMERICA: Mega-Cities Squander Water Resources

Latin America's mega-cities are devouring as well as contaminating their water resources, and forced to seek increasingly distant supplies. However, experts stress that the problem is not scarcity but rather widespread waste..

POLITICS-SOUTH AFRICA: A Former President Looks Back

"For many black South Africans very little has changed: the same people still own the big houses, they still hold down the best jobs, they still drive the fancy cars that speed - unseeing - past the black informal settlements that line our first-world highways," says F.W. de Klerk, the country’s last apartheid-era president.

CUBA: Commuters Wait Endlessly for Crammed Bus – or Hitchhike

Tired of waiting for a packed bus that takes forever to arrive, María Luisa Bustamante now hitchhikes to work from her home in a poor neighbourhood on the outskirts of Havana.

DEVELOPMENT-EAST AFRICA: A New Treaty on the Nile Said to be Imminent

Water resource ministers and other government representatives from ten African countries within the Nile Basin met in Kenya this week to discuss a new agreement on sharing the Nile waters.

U.S.: Hub of 1960s Protests Turns Quiet

Walking through the famous Sproul Plaza at the University of California in Berkeley, it is hard to imagine it as the place where thousands gathered in the late 1960s to protest against the Vietnam War.

IRAQ: Human Rights Precarious – Amnesty

One year after the U.S.-led attack on Iraq, civilians are seeing some improvements in human rights but violence is endemic and many people live in fear for their safety, says a report by Amnesty International (AI).

POLITICS-IRAQ: A Year Later, More Turmoil Ahead

One year after U.S. President George W Bush ordered the start of a three-week ground-and-air assault that toppled three decades of Saddam Hussein's tyrannical regime, Iraq is still in turmoil and with little certainty in sight.

THAILAND: Knowledge Arms Burmese Migrant Women against Abuse

She travelled to this city with her lips sealed. After all, she feared that even a word from her during a 14-hour train journey from Bangkok could have revealed her identity as a woman from Burma and lead to police arrest.

POLITICS-TAIWAN: Ties with China Overshadow Issues in Poll

When people of the democratically-governed island of Taiwan head for the polls Saturday, all domestic issues will be overshadowed by a single, external matter - how to deal with the island's giant neighbour, China.