DEVELOPMENT-THAILAND: Fish, Not Dams

Seventy-one-year old Kham, a woman from Napho Klang, left home early in the morning of Dec. 14 to join a ritual to revitalise the Mekong River, which passes through this part of north-eastern Thailand.

CLIMATE CHANGE: Meat-Eating Gets Grilled

Climate change has given vegetarians a big, new stick to bash meat-eating with, albeit one they would have gladly done without.

Indigenous Mythology and Global Warming

Phenomena like climate change have occurred in long-past eras of humanity, when the balance between people and nature was broken, writes anthropologist Marina Barbosa in this column.

Ecobreves – HONDURAS: New Diploma in Geology

Public and private Honduran institutions this month created the first diploma in geology, aimed at developing human resources to contribute to the prevention and mitigation of natural disasters.

Ecobreves – MEXICO: Eye on Native Christmas Tree Sales

Faced with competition from foreign species, native Christmas tree growers in the southern area of the Mexican capital are fighting to keep their plantations in business.

Ecobreves – ARGENTINA: Residents Resist Mining Project

Residents of the northwestern Argentine province of Catamarca have kept up a roadblock on the access route to a mining site, because they say its exploitation by the Canadian firm Yamana Gold would harm the environment.

Ecobreves – BRAZIL: Micro Hydropower for Isolated Towns

The Hidropolio micro hydropower system is an alternative for bringing clean energy to some 10 million Brazilians living in isolated areas who otherwise lack electricity.

December 12 Was a Tipping Point

Regardless of the words these presidents and prime ministers decide in a "protocol" or "agreement" this week, it is the people of the world who have put the writing on the wall!, says in this column Saleemul Huq.

RIGHTS: Europe Plans Spies in the Skies

Warplanes similar to those used to bomb civilians in Afghanistan and Pakistan will be flying in Europe's skies within the next few years, under a scheme being prepared by Brussels officials.

U.S.: The Guantanamo Shell Game?

Human and rights advocates and members of the Republican Party found unusual common ground Monday.

RIGHTS-US: Guantanamo Prisoners Not “Persons”

In the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court's refusal Monday to review a lower court's dismissal of a case brought by four British former Guantanamo prisoners against former Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, the detainees' lawyers charged Tuesday that the country's highest court evidently believes that "torture and religious humiliation are permissible tools for a government to use".

CANADA: “Cheek by Jowl” with U.S. on COIN in Afghanistan

July 2011 and beyond, no country will have been more closely integrated with U.S. President Barack Obama and Gen. Stanley McChrystal's counterinsurgency war in Afghanistan than the Canadians.

MIDEAST: Occupation Eats Away Israel’s Heart and Soul

After Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank torched a mosque and desecrated copies of the Quran in the Palestinian village of Yasuf, last Friday morning, they ran into a wall of condemnation.

The four horsemen of the apocalypse

 

RIGHTS-INDIA: Women Rally Together to Fight Injustice

Rajbala, 40, learned in the cruelest way possible that poverty exacts an exorbitant price, especially if one is pursuing justice.

Ecobreves – VENEZUELA: Campaign Against Moss Christmas Decoration

Venezuela's Environment Ministry and National Guard have stepped up their campaign against the collection and sale of moss, which is traditionally used in Christian households to decorate Christmas Nativity scenes.

Ecobreves – HONDURAS: Suit Against Gov't to Go to Inter-American Court

A coalition of environmental defense groups in the northern region of Omoa will file a case in January 2010 against the Government of Honduras for failing to relocated the Mexican transnational Gas del Caribe, which is polluting the coastal zone.

Ecobreves – BRAZIL: Urban Pollution More Lethal Than Cholesterol

Polluted city air alters the molecular structure of "bad cholesterol" (LDL), facilitating the build-up of fatty layers in the arteries and increasing the risk of heart attack and stroke, according to a study by Sandra Regina Castro Soares, for her doctorate in medicine at the University of São Paulo.

MIDEAST: Human Rights Deteriorated in 2009, Report Warns

Human rights abuses in Arab countries increased throughout the Middle East and North Africa during 2009, according to the annual report of the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies, released earlier this week.

Climate Justice Now

POLITICS: Poll Finds Optimism for Obama’s Mideast Diplomacy

Israeli attitudes toward U.S. President Barack Obama aren't nearly as dismal as previous reports have implied, according to a poll released Thursday by the Washington-based think tank, the New America Foundation.