UKRAINE: Between the Kremlin and a Hard Place

Ukraine's internal political problems and tensions with Russia threaten its path to stability and its candidacy for NATO and the EU, warns a new Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) report.

RIGHTS: EU Urged to Take Guantanamo Men

Sixty of the remaining detainees in Guantanamo Bay should be given new homes in the European Union, human rights campaigners have urged.

U.S.: Report Contradicts Govt Claims of “Humane” Detention

A leading human rights organisation charges that contrary to recent U.S. government reports that found prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba being treated humanely, they are in fact "deteriorating at a rapid rate" due to "harsh conditions that continue to this day, despite a few cosmetic changes to their routines."

ENVIRONMENT-JAPAN: Jail For Nailing Scientific Whaling Lies?

Two Greenpeace activists who exposed a black market in whale meat run by the crew of Japanese whalers face up to 10 years in jail while the government shows no discomfiture over the nailing of its ‘scientific whaling’ claims.

CHINA: Won’t Trade Art Objects For Rights in Tibet

As nationalistic passions burn over the fate of looted Chinese artworks auctioned in Paris this week, Beijing is attempting to keep the focus on past humiliations by Western powers and away from delicate issues like human rights and China’s handling of Tibet.

MIDEAST: The Ball Could be in Israel's Court

Israel's outgoing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert rode roughshod over those who piously argue that sport and politics ought not to play in the same arena.

POLITICS: Two Kenyas, Two Dreams: Which Do We Want?

Kenya's civil society has rebuffed efforts by its embattled government to restore its tattered image in the wake of waning public confidence in the state. Their major grievance is that the country's problems, including high level graft, are the result of a culture of impunity that has engulfed the nation's top officials and politicians.

CHINA: Cracks Appearing in the “Great Firewall”

While the Internet boom in China has given citizens new avenues for self-expression, the government's tight control and censorship of content has made it difficult for the web to act as a platform for any major political dissent.

ECONOMY-BOTSWANA: Job Losses Show ‘‘Diamonds Are Not Forever’’

‘‘The situation is now very bad, very bad for workers. It is no longer about the workers alone, it is about the government, the companies, everyone. We need to talk. Dialogue is the only solution.’’

Ecobreves – CUBA: Danger: Fire

The three hurricanes that thrashed Cuba in 2008 have increased the threat of forest fires during the current dry season, which lasts until early May, experts told Tierramérica.

Ecobreves – CHILE: Mapuches Question Validity of Gov't “Consultation”

Leaders of the Mapuche people are challenging the legitimacy and usefulness of the First National Consultation of Indigenous Peoples that the national government has extended to Mar. 2.

Ecobreves – VENEZUELA: Schoolchildren Protect Fish

Gustavo, age 10, is happy to join his classmates in moving a hundred young cachama fish (Colossoma macropomum) to a pond in the Francisco de Mirando Park in the Venezuelan capital.

Ecobreves – HONDURAS: Military Engages in Operation Forest

The Honduran government announced that at month's end it will deploy a military contingent to protect 23,000 hectares of forest in the protected areas that are most in danger of fire in the dry season.

Ecobreves – BRAZIL: Zoo Saves Water

The São Paulo Zoo is saving 1.3 million liters of water per month since it started following the Rational Water Use Program (PURA, for its Portuguese acronym).

ENVIRONMENT: Ministers Say Yes to Mercury Treaty

Six thousand tonnes of mercury enter the environment every year, posing a threat to human and animal health. Environment ministers meeting in Kenya have agreed to negotiate a treaty to reduce the supply and use of mercury worldwide.

Slide Show: Revolution – 50 years

MIDEAST: Human Rights Defenders Under Siege

The administration of U.S. President Barack Obama must take a leadership position in championing human rights in the Middle East and North Africa by using U.S. economic and trade leverage and confronting the growing global threat of authoritarianism being promoted by Arab regimes, advocates say.

TECHNOLOGY-US: Digital TV for All? Not so Fast

Imagine turning on your television and all you see is black and white fuzz.

MIDEAST: 'EU Paying for Gaza Blockade'

European Union aid has been given to an Israeli oil company which has reduced the supply of fuel to Gaza as part of an economic blockade internationally recognised as illegal, Brussels officials have admitted.

ZAMBIA: Corruption in Water Sector Makes Clean Water A Pipedream

In his address to the National Assembly on Jan. 30, Zambia's finance and national planning minister, Situmbeko Musokotwene, allocated additional resources to the water sector, with the specific aim of preventing the spread of waterborne diseases. But Zambians have heard such promises before.

POLITICS: Rhetoric and Reality Clash on Obama’s First Foreign Visit

On his first foreign visit as U.S. president, Barack Obama's rhetoric of "hope" and "change" came face to face with the hard, divisive policy realities of climate change from Canada's tar sands, a growing insurgency in Afghanistan and the sputtering world economy.