DR CONGO: Will Poultry Project Live up to Expectations?

For some seven million Congolese living in Kinshasa the only meat and poultry they could buy to eat since the 1980s was frozen imports from Western countries, distributed locally by a few local businessmen.

RIGHTS-US: Justice Not Always Blind, Especially to Gender

When Legal Momentum, a U.S. advocacy group that works with all aspects of gender in the legal system, started its National Judicial Education Programme in 1980, gender discrimination was an unacknowledged problem in the country's courtrooms.

AFGHANISTAN: Traffickers Step Up Import of Heroin-Making Chemicals

Drug traffickers are increasing imports of precursor chemicals used for processing opium poppy into heroin and morphine, according to a new State Department report released here Monday.

MIDEAST: Piano Sounds Good in Gaza Too

At 14, Nour plays the piano, and she knows the facts around her. That the average age for marriage is 18, likely to a man found by parents, her place would be within that home, and a woman has on average 6.5 children.

ZIMBABWE: Constitution in the Limelight

A new play, Waiting for Constitution has generated great interest among politicians and civil society groups anxious to get consultations over drafting a new constitution under way.

CARIBBEAN: A New Era of South-Oriented Geopolitics?

As chair of the 15-member regional integration movement, Dominica's Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit insists that the decision by Caribbean Community countries to be part of a new Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CLACS) is not intended to sideline longtime hemispheric alliances such as the Organisation of American States.

US-AFGHANISTAN: Habeas Challenges for Bagram Prisoners

Four men who have been imprisoned for over a year – some for almost two years – are going to U.S. federal court to challenge their detention at the notorious Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan.

Ecobreves – HONDURAS: Demanding an End to Illegal Logging

Civil society organizations are demanding that Honduran President Porfirio Lobo declare a total ban on lumber activities, in order to halt illegal logging of the nation's forests.

Ecobreves – CHILE: Environmentalists Wary of New Government

Chilean environmentalists are concerned about the possible measures to be taken by the incoming environment minister María Ignacia Benítez, given her work as a private projects solicitor before the Environmental Impact Assessment System, some of which came under fire from citizen groups.

Ecobreves – VENEZUELA: A Frog for Al Gore

A frog that measures less than two centimeters long, discovered in the western Venezuelan state of Táchira, was named Allobates algorei in honor of the former U.S. vice-president Al Gore (1993-2001), co-recipient of the 2007 Nobel Peace prize.

Ecobreves – BRAZIL: Machine for Separating Garbage

A machine invented by students at SENAI, an industrial training center in Concordia, in southern Brazil, can separate out garbage by type, replacing what can be dangerous manual work.

MIGRATION: France Urges EU to Tighten Mediterranean Borders

The European Union is studying a range of measures aimed at strengthening its external borders to deter undocumented migrants from entering via Mediterranean member states such as Italy, Greece, Cyprus and Spain.

DEVELOPMENT: Grassroots Groups Taking Root in China

Chinese civil society is coming increasingly to the fore as wealthy tycoons create big charitable foundations and grassroots organisations form networks of their own, observers and activists say.

MIDEAST: New Call to Past Adds to Troubles

When last December Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, delivering to an international conference in Herzliya outside Tel Aviv what has become the equivalent of Israel's 'State of the Union' address, chose to focus not on Iran's nuclear ambitions or on the prospects of Middle East peace, but on "the need to re-enforce our national heritage," his vision was dismissed by supporters and critics alike as inconsequential.

US-IRAN: Looming Sanctions Could Hit Major Oil Firms

Earlier this month, Iran's ambassador to India said that his country continues to import gasoline from a private Indian oil refinery, even though the firm, Reliance Industries Ltd., had promised last year that it would stop gasoline exports to Iran, fearing U.S. sanctions.

U.S.: Blackwater’s Migraines Multiply

Legal headaches are growing exponentially for the security firm formerly known as Blackwater – once the darling of the military-industrial community.

U.S.: Senate Torture Probe Uncovers Missing Emails

The Justice Department investigation into whether the authors of the George W. Bush-era "torture memos" were guilty of professional misconduct did not have full access to the emails used by those lawyers and by other key figures in the investigation, including former Attorney General John Ashcroft and former counsel to the Vice President David Addington.

MIDEAST: How to Check Both Iran and Israel

The U.S. is raising the stakes in its bid to halt Iran's nuclear programme, putting the issue on a "pressure track", says top U.S. general David Petraeus. The U.S. and other world powers are drumming up support for a fourth round of UN sanctions against Iran for its refusal to comply with repeated ultimatums to suspend uranium enrichment and to agree to a deal involving UN-backed nuclear fuel.

US-IRAN: How Was Rigi Arrested?

New details of the arrest of the Jundullah leader, Abdolmalek Rigi, partly corroborate and partly contradict the initial narrative given by Iranian officials for his arrest.

RIGHTS: What Fish may do for Western Sahara

Legal advice stating that European vessels have no justification to fish off Western Sahara - a territory occupied by Morocco - has provoked a row between the main political institutions in Brussels.

RIGHTS-EUROPE: Military Technology to Track Down Migrants?

Arms manufacturers have been asked to advise an official European Union (EU) body on how their products can be used to stop asylum seekers entering the bloc’s territory.