ISRAEL: Rights Recede Under Opium of Occupation

The nationwide movement for social justice that sent tens of thousands of Israelis to the streets on the weekend was seemingly oblivious to the fact that, concurrently, the Palestinians were officially announcing their bid for U.N.- endorsed recognition of statehood.

JAPAN: Divorced Men Lose Children Along With Visas

Shahdul Huq, a Bangladeshi national living in Japan for more than 20 years, last saw his daughter almost three years ago when he lost his ‘spouse visa’ following divorce from his Japanese wife.

Ecobreves – CUBA: Zeolites Increase Agricultural Yields

The use of natural zeolites in agriculture increases crop yields while minimizing environmental impacts, new Cuban research has found.

Ecobreves – HONDURAS: Firefighters Plant Trees in the Capital

A contingent of 25 members of the Tegucigalpa Fire Department has joined the government initiative to plant 200,000 trees in the Honduran capital and three neighboring municipalities over the next six months.

Ecobreves – VENEZUELA: Used Batteries Collected on Margarita Island

An environmental group from Margarita Island, located in the Caribbean Sea off the northeast coast of Venezuela, has launched a campaign to collect used batteries from the island’s 400,000 inhabitants and the hundreds of thousands of tourists who visit every year.

Ecobreves – BRAZIL: Despite Forest Management, Logging Leads to Financial Losses

Even when sustainable management regulations and logging cycles established by the law are strictly followed, logging causes irreversible losses in the productive value of Amazon forests, according to a study by the Luiz de Queiroz Higher School of Agriculture at the University of São Paulo.

Climate Change Is Affecting Traditional Knowledge

Colombia has no system for monitoring biodiversity to determine how it could be affected by global warming, Brigitte Baptiste of the Humboldt Institute, a Colombian government institution devoted to biodiversity, reports in this exclusive interview.

SA aims at more than MDGs: Minister

Governments that agreed to the Millennium Development Goals have four years before the 2015 deadline. Gender Links, a women's rights NGO, has released a barometer to measure some of the successes in the SADC region. Zukiswa Zimela asked South African minister of Home affairs, Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma, if women are making a difference.

PAKISTAN: Gem of a Plan Against Taliban

Mining gems and other valuable minerals may provide, the Pakistan government hopes, alternate careers to militancy in the restive Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), bordering Afghanistan.

BALKANS: Prison Literature Blossoms

A new literary trend is gaining momentum in Serbia. It revolves around a phenomenon sociologists are describing as "prison literature".

Development NGOs Face “Existential Challenge”

Buy now, pay later. That's the power Muhammad Yunus gave to the world's poor.

TUNISIA: War Strangles Livelihoods on the Border

Tunisia’s border with Libya has been a major lifeline, keeping residents in Ben Guerdane economically afloat - so when the vital trade route is blocked by the municipality or by protestors, tempers flare.

MEXICO: Activists Organise Against Spiralling Threats

"Open the door! Open the door, you SOBs!" Policemen dressed in black, wearing balaclavas and carrying "what I suppose were high-power rifles" broke down the door of the home of Efraín Bartolomé, a poet who lives on the south side of the Mexican capital. They had no warrant.

ARGENTINA: Needs Outstrip Efforts to Build Affordable Housing

The Argentine economy has grown steadily since 2003, and hundreds of thousands of social housing units have been built. Nevertheless, the protests and conflicts that periodically break out make it clear that the solutions have failed to keep up with the need for affordable housing

UGANDA: Post War Reconstruction Ignores Victims of Sexual Violence

Ester Abeja has experienced both physical and emotional atrocities. She was captured by Uganda's feared rebel group the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) and was forced to join them. But not before the soldiers made her kill her one-year- old baby girl, by smashing her skull in, and then gang raped her.

ZAMBIA: Outlook Dim for Women Candidates

Although there is a female presidential candidate contesting Zambia's Sept. 20 general elections, her prospects are not strong. And in fact, fewer women overall are likely to be elected into public office this year, analysts say.

NGOs Cry “Sabotage” Over U.N. Meeting on Racism

A coalition of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) is accusing the U.N. Secretariat of "sabotaging" an upcoming high-level meeting on racism by upstaging it with a nuclear security summit scheduled for the same day.

THAILAND: The Green Cause Can Kill

In a country where the going rate for a contract killing is around Thai baht 15,000 (500 dollars), the price paid to eliminate Thongnak Sawekchinda, an environmental activist, has caught the police by surprise.

ICRC Warns of Human Toll of Attacks on Medical Workers

A new report by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) describes a pattern of attacks on medical staff that the group says is undermining the safe delivery of medical assistance and health care across the globe.

BOLIVIA: Amazon Road Plan Has Native People on the March Again

Indigenous people in the eastern lowlands of Bolivia are again preparing to make the long march to La Paz, 21 years after their first such protest. They have vowed to make the trek in defence of their lands, which they say are threatened by plans for a highway to be built with the backing of the Brazilian government.

MIDEAST: Work Has Come to This

It's a weekday morning, the beach is yet to fill with crowds seeking a break from the heat, but already the odd-jobbers are at work selling toys, clothes and food along the coast.