TRINIDAD: Women Demand a Real Gender Policy

A few days after she created history by becoming the first woman to be elected as opposition leader and the leader of a major political party in Trinidad and Tobago, Kamla Persad Bissessar was kicking mad at the "misunderstanding" of the role of women and their contribution to society.

U.S.: ACLU Ad Challenges Military Commissions

Civil libertarians hit back hard Sunday at reports indicating that the Barack Obama administration is about to cave in to pressure from Congress and local groups in New York City and is not only considering transferring the cases of suspected terrorists to another federal court, but even moving them to the military commission system.

EUROPE: Green Finance Wise, or Otherwise

A plan to give the European Union's lending arm a beefed-up mandate for financing the fight against climate change has drawn a sceptical response from campaigners on green and economic justice issues.

MIDEAST: Palestinians Preparing for Statehood Anyhow

Was it Yasser Arafat's biggest political error? A decade ago, the deadline for the creation of an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel as envisaged in the 1993 Oslo peace accords thrust itself into the fruitless Palestinian-Israeli negotiations.

Ecobreves – MEXICO: Festival to Promote Green Commerce

A hundred sustainable producers will gather Mar. 13 at Ecofest, the first eco-festival in the Mexican capital, with the goal of promoting consumption of ecological products.

Ecobreves – ARGENTINA: Movement of Toxic Waste Denounced

The Argentine Environmental Defense Foundation issued an alert about the removal of toxic materials from an abandoned vegetable oil production plant in the central province of Córdoba.

Ecobreves – HONDURAS: Forest Authority Powerless Against Fires

Officials from the government's Forest Conservation Institute (ICF) declared themselves incapable of controlling forest fires in Honduras, due to lack of human and logistical resources.

Ecobreves – BRAZIL: Accelerated Deforestation in Northeast

The Caatinga, the only biome that is exclusively Brazilian and vulnerable due to its arid climate, lost 26,576 square kilometers of forest from 2002 to 2008, with just 53.6 percent of its original forest intact.

IRAQ: Secular Candidates Have Their Best Chance

As Iraqis go to the polls on Sunday, a key question in the minds of many in Iraq and Washington is whether secular candidates can continue their recent rise and possibly come out as winners.

MALAWI: Climate Change Is Changing Farming Methods

As they slept soundly on the night of Feb. 28, a family of four was killed when their house collapsed over their heads in Malawi’s southern district of Chikhwawa.

RIGHTS-US: Senate Debates Indefinite Detentions

Civil liberties advocates and U.S. constitutional law scholars lost no time in condemning proposed legislation introduced in the Senate Thursday that would hand the government the power to indefinitely detain terrorism suspects without charge and to conduct trials through military commissions only.

RIGHTS: U.S. Criticised over Soaring Housing Costs

On Friday, the richest and most powerful country on earth was the subject of a damning report submitted to the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva.

HEALTH: Potato Drags GM Food Into Europe

Genetically modified (GM) foods appear to be back on the European Union's political menu - thanks to a potato.

HAITI: Experts Urge Sea Change in “Culture of Aid”

A delegation of human rights experts is preparing to visit Haiti to assess the human rights and aid situation in the earthquake-crippled nation and to urge the international community to follow a series of guidelines they have prepared to help donors' to "overcome the mistakes of the past."

MIDEAST: Palestinian Homes on ‘David’s Garden’ Spared for Now

Outside the Bedouin-style protest tent in the heart of this Palestinian neighbourhood, the anger is palpable, but controlled.

VIETNAM: War Movie with Peace Theme Seeks to Heal Wounds

A Vietnamese film that is vying for an Oscar this month offers a glimpse into how Vietnam and the United States are healing decades-old war wounds, as well as how that war still generates emotional debate today.

RIGHTS-CHINA: For Dissident’s Wife, A Time of Waiting

Long before Liu Xiaobo, China’s most prominent political dissident and co- author of the Charter 08 call for political reform, was sentenced to 11 years in prison for "incitement to subvert state power," his wife, Liu Xia, had accepted his fate.

INDONESIA: U.S. Seeks to Resume Training of Controversial Military Unit

The administration of President Barack Obama hopes to resume U.S. training of an elite Indonesian military unit whose members have been convicted of gross human rights abuses in East Timor and elsewhere in the sprawling archipelago.

U.S.: Grassroots Groups Get More Bang for Donors’ Bucks

While "community organising" has become a punch line for late- night comedians since the election of Barack Obama as U.S. president, the activity "delivers enormous benefits to communities," according to a new study conducted by the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy (NCRP).

DR-CONGO: EU Urged to Ban ‘Conflict Minerals’

After the United States senate’s move to stem the flow of money from mineral mines fuelling the brutal civil war in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the watchdog group Global Witness (GW) is calling on Europe to follow suit.

POLITICS: Indonesians Complain About ‘Noise’ of Democracy

Is there such a thing as too much freedom in a democracy?