HAITI: Battered and Unready for Looming Storm Season

Haiti’s environmental degradation is a time bomb that needs urgent attention if the country is to preserve its already strained social and economic stability, says a new briefing from the International Crisis Group (ICG).

DEVELOPMENT: Make Use of African Skills

The theme of the third biennial Knowledge Management Africa (KMA) conference, which opened Monday in the capital of Senegal, is lofty - "knowledge to reposition Africa in the world economy". But the aim is more down-to-earth: to find ways to apply vital information to the basic question of improving the lives of Africa's people.

RIGHTS-US: Obama Considers Revamping Military Trials

Reports circulating in Washington suggest that President Barack Obama may try to revive the military commission system for prosecuting Guantánamo detainees, which Obama himself criticised during the administration of his predecessor, former President George W. Bush.

RIGHTS: Britain Tries to Block CIA Rendition Case

British High Court judges are expected to rule this week on whether a document by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency can be publicly disclosed, thus opening the courthouse door to a lawsuit charging that the British government was complicit in facilitating the rendition of a British resident by the CIA, which tortured and secretly imprisoned him at Guantánamo Bay.

POLITICS-US: Obama’s Uighur Problem

The probability that some Guantanamo detainees will soon be released into the U.S. will place the administration of President Barack Obama in the eye of a major political hurricane.

RIGHTS-IRAQ: U.N. Report Paints Grim Picture

Iraqi prisons are torturing detainees, locking people up for months without charges and, in most cases, allowing the perpetrators of these human rights abuses to escape justice, according to a new United Nations report.

LESOTHO: Help At Hand for Orphans

The Lesotho government - battling against the challenges presented by an ever-growing population of orphans whose parents have succumbed to the AIDS pandemic - has embarked on an ambitious programme aimed at alleviating the suffering of these vulnerable children, in partnership with the European Union and UNICEF.

MIDEAST: Pilgrim of Peace Heads for Land of Strife

Pope Benedict XVI says his visit to the Holy Land will be as a "pilgrim of peace": the pontiff's pilgrimage starts in Jordan Friday (May 8) and continues on from there to Palestine and Israel.

Ecobreves – VENEZUELA: National Park Restricts Vehicles

Access of all-terrain four-wheel-drive vehicles is being limited in the Cainama National Park, in southeastern Venezuela, bordering Brazil and part of the Guiana massif.

Ecobreves – CHILE: Anti-Dam Campaign Reaches Europe

May 8 will mark the end of a two-week tour through Spain and Italy by activist Juan Pablo Orrego, international coordinator of the Patagonia Defense Council, which is fighting the construction of five dams in the southern Chilean region of Aysén.

Ecobreves – BRAZIL: Productive Plan to Save Biodiversity

Technical training, access to credit and strengthening the market are the key points of the national plan for socio-biodiversity productive chains, signed in late April by Brazil's President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

SRI LANKA: In Honour of Slain Editor, They Keep Writing

At the end of the long editorial room of ‘The Sunday Leader’ hangs a large sketch of Lasantha Wickrematunge, the late editor of the newspaper, who was assassinated on Jan. 7. He was shot in his car, just five minutes from his office.

US-SUDAN: Darfur Activists Deplore Closer Ties With Khartoum

Washington's recent move to "normalise" relations with Sudan is being called a "capitulation" by critics.

MIDEAST: 60,000 Palestinians at Risk in Jerusalem, UN Warns

A report published Friday by a United Nations agency has warned that the problems facing the people of Silwan, who are facing eviction from their homes, are replicated throughout East Jerusalem.

LABOUR: World Bank in About-Face on Worker Rights

The World Bank is dropping an index scored for undermining worker rights from its flagship effort to promote business-led economic growth in emerging, developing, and former Soviet countries.

MEXICO: Congress Closed to Indigenous Women

No indigenous woman has ever held a seat in the Mexican Congress. But two of them, one belonging to the conservative ruling party and the other representing the leftwing opposition, are trying to change that in the July legislative elections.

CAMBODIA: Corruption Allegations Undermine Khmer Rouge Tribunal

The voice of Comrade Duch reverberates daily through the speakers at the 500- seat courtroom in Phnom Penh as he gives testimony in his trial for crimes against humanity.

MIDEAST: Hamas Gaining International Legitimacy

Delegations from the rival Fatah and Hamas organisations have again failed in Cairo to bridge their differences meant to usher in a Palestinian unity government, but this has in no way slowed inroads which the Islamist movement has been making to increase its international legitimacy - much to Israel's concern.

NEPAL: People's Voices: Reflecting on the Republic

Maoist hammer and sickle graffiti from last year's constituent assembly (CA) election is still fresh on the walls all around Gorkha Bajar. This historic town, some 150 km west of the capital Kathmandu, used to be a Maoist stronghold during the 'peoples war' from 1996-2006.

POLITICS-US: Rights Groups Still Waiting for Obama to Deliver

While human rights and open-government groups are generally pleased with President Barack Obama’s rhetoric during his first 100 days, some are sceptical that he will deliver on his promises.

RIGHTS-US: Calls for Torture Inquiry Aren’t Going Away

A coalition of 19 human rights, faith-based and justice organisations is calling on President Barack Obama to investigate torture they charge was sanctioned by the administration of former President George W. Bush.