RIGHTS-CAMBODIA: Khmer Rouge Trials Bare Sexual Abuse

In a move that could break the silence around sexual violence under the Khmer Rouge, a 68 year-old transgender woman has became the first person to submit a complaint about gender-related abuse to the international tribunal during the group’s brief but bloody reign.

Ecobreves – ARGENTINA: Massacre of American Rhea

An environmental group in Argentina has denounced the massacre in recent weeks of several hundred ñandú, or American rhea, a cousin of the ostrich that is increasingly threatened in the central province of Córdoba due to the expansion of soybean cultivation.

Ecobreves – BRAZIL: Alternative Fertilizers to Fight Inflation

The Brazilian government has decided to set aside 4.8 million dollars to develop alternative fertilizers, given the brutal hike in prices of conventional fertilizers.

Ecobreves – HONDURAS: United Front Against Illegal Logging

The Honduran National Human Rights Commission signed a pact with civil society groups and the government as part of a shared strategy to halt illegal logging and lumber trafficking.

Ecobreves – MEXICO: Teachers Lacking in Natural Sciences

An assessment of science teachers of secondary schools in Mexico shows that they know very little about physics, chemistry or biology.

Environmental Sustainability at a Crossroads

Latin America needs new sources of wealth and of employment, but sustainable development will require increasingly greater environmentally clean economic expansion, write Ricardo Sánchez, regional director of the UN Environment Program, and Mexican social development expert Enrique Provencio.

Climate Change Imposes New Conditions for Policy

If the raw material export sector and the governments of Latin America insist on depredatory productive systems, it will be unlikely that natural resources will be able to sustain future development, writes Chilean environmental leader Sara Larraín in this exclusive column for Tierramérica.

INDIA/US: Nuclear Waiver – Blow to Non-Proliferation

The special waiver granted to India by the Nuclear Suppliers' Group (NSG) from its nuclear trade rules is being seen as a massive setback to the cause of global nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament.

Q&A: "We Will Write About Them"

While formal publishing companies in Nigeria languished through the economic crises that accompanied the structural adjustment programmes of the late 1980s and early 1990s, young Hausa writers began writing about their lives and contemporary problems they faced. Bypassing formal publishers, they self-published their novels, often with the help of a writers' cooperative.

A Landmark Election — Louise Redvers & Terna Gyuse

RIGHTS-SOMALIA: Building Women’s Leadership

The moderator raps her pen on the table to hush the boisterous assembly of Somali women gathered in Bagamoyo, on the Indian Ocean coast of Tanzania. Their voices drop for a moment before the sound level rises again to a heated crescendo.

RIGHTS: Political Prisoners Shadow Rice Visit to Libya

Human right organisations are urging U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who is touring North African nations over the next several days, to press for the release of Fathi Aljahmi, a long-time political prisoner during her visit to Libya Friday.

Q&A: 'Our Voices Have Been Heard'

As the Third High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness draws to a close in the Ghanaian capital, gender activists are reflecting on the way ahead.

POLITICS-US: Red, White and Blue… But Mostly White

Don't adjust your television set. There is no problem with your signal; it's just that all the colour was missing from the Republican National Convention, which concluded last night with Sen. John McCain's speech accepting the party nomination.

POLITICS-US: Aerospace Lobby Wages Its Own Election Campaign

"In about the time it takes you to drive into a gas station, insert your credit card in the pump, fill the tank, take your receipt, and get back on the road, a foreign power can use a missile to disable the U.S. communications satellite that made your transaction possible."

DEVELOPMENT: Donors And The Poor Agree Aid Agenda

Delegates from both developing and developed countries have adopted the Accra Agenda For Action (AAA) as a guide to improve the way aid is given and spent.

RIGHTS-NEPAL: Truth, Reconciliation in Limbo

When Nepal's Supreme Court directed the government in June 2007 to form a commission to investigate cases of forced disappearances, during the 1996-2006 civil war, it extended hope to many survivors. More than a year later the idea of a truth and reconciliation commission (TRC) is still in limbo.

ENVIRONMENT: EU Takes a Weak Step Against Logging

The European Union has reached a new agreement aimed at preventing import of illegal timber from Africa, but environmental campaigners believe bolder action is needed to curb deforestation across the globe.

BOOKS-US: Revelations of an Abu Ghraib Interrogator

Few people have thought as much about the morality of the U.S. occupation of Iraq than Joshua Casteel, a former U.S. Army interrogator who served at Abu Ghraib prison in the wake of the detainee abuse scandal there.

INDIA/US: Lawmaker’s Disclosure May Torpedo Nuke Deal

Chances of the United States-India nuclear deal being completed have greatly receded with the release by a key U.S. lawmaker of a so-far-secret Bush administration document which says Washington will not sell sensitive nuclear technologies to India and will terminate nuclear commerce with it if India conducts a test.

VIETNAM: Paying for Ecosystems

Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES), an environmental scheme now being trialled in this South-east Asian country, may serve as a model for the region, if found successful.