EUROPE: More of the Last Dictatorship

Belarus is set to remain Europe’s last dictatorship after Alexander Lukashenka was returned to the presidency last weekend in an election result which his critics say was never in doubt.

U.N. in Test of Wills over Cote d’Ivoire Crisis

The United Nations is taking an unrelenting stand on the spreading constitutional crisis in Cote d'Ivoire, where two contenders - one victorious and the other vanquished - are battling it out for the country's presidency.

ECUADOR: Voters to Go to Ballot Box on Anti-Crime Measures

A referendum on reforms to the new constitution and criminal law is to be held in Ecuador in response to the mounting public security crisis, giving left-wing President Rafael Correa an opportunity to canvass public opinion on these thorny issues.

Big Fleets Resist Pacific Islands’ Plan to Save Fisheries

Eight Pacific island nations that are leveraging their contracts with foreign fishing fleets to save the world's last great stocks of tuna are getting little sympathy from the countries representing those fleets.

Caribbean Lagging on EPA Deadlines with Europe

Two years after Europe signed an Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) with the Caribbean Forum countries, concerns are being raised in the region about the timeline for future negotiations in a number of areas.

A NEW CONSENSUS FOR AN HABITABLE WORLD FOR ALL

History will judge us severely if we are incapable of responding to the challenges and opportunities presented by the global crisis. Instead of using 50 billion dollars to eradicate poverty, which was one of the agreed Millennium Objectives, the consensus among governments was to grant fifty times that amount to save the speculating banks that “are too large to let fall”, contradicting their own neo-liberal doctrine of allowing the market to regulate itself without government intervention.

Anonymous Afro-Cubans Heroes Remembered for Posterity

Under the spreading shade of a wild fig tree in Old Havana, a small plaque now recalls the sacrifice made by five Afro-Cubans, "anonymous Abakuá who died trying to save medical students" shot by firing squad, when this island was still a Spanish colony.

LATIN AMERICA: Community Currencies Offer Refuge from Economic Forces

Túmin, which means "money" in the Totonaca indigenous language, is a community currency now circulating among 80 vendors selling their products at an alternative market in the town of Espinal, in the eastern Mexican state of Veracruz.

POLITICS: Women Still a Parliamentary Minority in Kenya

While some countries like Liberia can boast that they have a female President, Kenya is still grappling with allowing women room to exercise their leadership roles in Parliament and at local government level.

GLOBALISATION: ENGINE OF A NEW WORLD ORDER

Citizens around the world have been hit with a flood of startling news recently: the Wikileaks revelations about how US officials see the world and how speculative financial capital takes advantage of the weakness of states, now also in Italy and, it seems, on the verge of moving into Germany. Meanwhile national budgets are being slashed in all the industrialised countries and waves of layoffs imposed.

JAPAN: Becoming International, But Not Quite

Forget dropping names or slipping the hostess a bill or two. It’s luck that’s important in snagging a reservation at Dhaba, an average-priced Indian restaurant that has become such a must-go place for Tokyo residents that guests are limited to a maximum stay of two hours.

REFUGEES: Liberians Struggle to Cope With Fleeing Ivorians

Albertine Yahwah sits on a hard wooden bench, cradling her little baby in her arms. The 20 year-old walked from the Ivory Coast with her two children and her husband to reach this small town across the border in Northern Liberia.

THAILAND: Online Censorship Triggers Fear among Bloggers

When he is not designing another house for this city’s sprawling urbanscape, a Thai architect in his mid-forties worries about another run-in with this kingdom’s cyber police.

U.S.: Prisoners Coordinate Statewide Strike via Cellphones

In what some are calling the largest prison strike in U.S. history, inmates in the state of Georgia coordinated a strike across multiple prison facilities using pre-paid cell phones.

JAMAICA: Priceless Native Plants Vanishing in the Wind

The recent successes of local medicinal researchers have turned the spotlight on local laws that fail to protect Jamaica's rich biological diversity.

“Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” Repeal Marks Rare Victory for Obama

The U.S. Senate's repeal of the military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy Saturday ended what had become for many an embarrassing and awkward policy - and marked a rare victory for the agenda of President Barack Obama in the U.S. Congress.

CUBA: Socialism Needs More Taxes, Fewer Subsidies

Cubans are delving deeper into economic change, which means new taxes and an end to the state subsidies that for decades were a symbol of the equality so highly extolled under the Cuban Revolution.

Culture Vulture Kids on Argentine TV

A public children’s television channel broadcasting high quality fiction, animation and documentary programmes designed by the Argentine Education Ministry for the two-to-12 age range can now be viewed elsewhere in Latin America via the internet.

A CIVIL SOCIETY PRO-WATER PARTNERSHIP

Any marketing professional who keeps abreast of global tendencies is aware of the advantages that generate added value to corporations from investing in nature conservation and sustainable use of natural resources. Corporations strive to associate themselves with causes that enjoy the sympathy and support of clients, which increase brand recognition, and improve corporate reputation in the market and in society at large.

RIGHTING THE WRONGS OF OVERFISHING AND ILLEGAL FISHING

Fishing rights must respect human rights. The International Collective in Support of Fishworkers (ICSF) believes that the development of responsible and sustainable fisheries is only possible if the political, civil, social, economic, and cultural rights of fishing communities and wider society are addressed in an integrated manner. Industrialised overfishing and illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing by industrial vessels is a scourge on everyone's human rights, but especially on the right to life and livelihood in communities that depend on small-scale artisanal (SMART) fishery activities.

BOOKS-IRAQ: Division Accomplished

Few in Washington want to talk much about Iraq these days.