RIGHTS-MOROCCO: Firing Squads Silent – But Death Hovers

Morocco's death row prisoners - some 150 inmates - are living in sub-human, "life-threatening conditions", according to leading NGOs and rights activists.

CULTURE-CHINA: Love a Peking Duck

Is the Peking duck winning the contest? The jury is out on which Chinese specialty is going to be crowned as the Beijing Olympics’ most favorite local product.

POLITICS-SOUTHERN AFRICA: Ground-breaking Gender Protocol Signed

Gender activists breathed a sigh of relief when a long-delayed gender protocol was signed at the Southern African Development Community (SADC) summit this weekend. Women bear the brunt of social injustice and problems on the African continent, ranging from access to clean water, poor health care, access to economic opportunities or adequate protection before the law.

CARIBBEAN: Political Union Endorsed – In Theory

You have to hand it to Patrick Manning, Trinidad and Tobago's prime minister, when it comes to persistence.

Q&A: Hezbollah’s Triumph Is Blowback for Israeli Policy

Since the Israel-Lebanon 34-day war two years ago, and particularly after the Doha accord in May which restored Hezbollah to the Lebanese government and essentially gave it the veto power it demanded, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah has been the most popular figure anywhere in the Arab world.

RIGHTS-US: Arar Faces Uphill Legal Battle

After suffering a series of stinging defeats of its detention policies in four years of Supreme Court decisions, the George W. Bush administration may be in for yet more bad news.

PAKISTAN: Musharraf Quits, Avoids Impeachment

Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf resigned from office on Monday ending weeks of speculation over whether he would quit or face impeachment on charges of illegally seizing power by a parliament elected in February and dominated by political parties opposed to him.

Ecobreves – VENEZUELA: Thousands of Children in Eco-Games

Some 15,000 children headed to 50 parks and zoos in Venezuela to start the 30th Ecological Games, which combine recreational activities with environmental education during two weeks of school vacation.

Ecobreves – CHILE: Preparing First Fisheries and Aquiculture Census

From September 2008 to April 2009, Chile will conduct its first national fisheries and aquiculture census. The results will be ready by the end of next year.

Ecobreves – BRAZIL: Edible Oil Waste to Fuel Buses

Biodiesel distilled from edible oil waste from restaurants and households will fuel 18 buses in the southern Brazilian city of Curitiba, whose transportation system is an international model and award winner.

Ecobreves – CUBA: New Biological Rodent Poison

Experts from Cuba's Plant Sciences Research Institute have created a new biological product for fighting rodents that attack crops, institute scientist Pedro Pablo Mora told Tierramérica.

Bolivian Businesses Take On the Green Challenge

Sustainable development is put to the test in three productive experiences in Bolivia.

CULTURE-CAMBODIA: Pre-War Khmer Music Making a Comeback

Grainy black and white newsreel footage of B-52 bombing raids and fierce fighting are the images most frequently associated with Cambodia in the sixties and early seventies - not rock and roll, hot pants and wild dancing.

US-GEORGIA: Expats Unite Against Russia

When the Russian military launched a military invasion of its small neighbour Georgia - operating at will in Georgia’s secessionist provinces of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, as well as Georgia proper - New York’s Georgian-American community responded almost immediately by gathering outside United Nations Headquarters here to protest the invasion of their homeland.

Q&A: 'Innocent Persons Are Sentenced to Death'

There are only estimates of the number of people facing the death sentence in India. The latest official figure is for Dec. 31, 2004 - 563 people.

RIGHTS: Tortuous Road to Justice in Inter-American System

Financial costs and lack of information are the main hurdles that public defenders must overcome in order to bring cases before the Inter-American Court on Human Rights, which ended its XXXV extraordinary period of sessions Friday in the Uruguayan capital.

PARAGUAY: “Today a New Country Is Born,” Says New President

Former Catholic bishop Fernando Lugo was sworn in Friday as president of Paraguay in a ceremony charged with emotion that broke with protocol, promising to rebuild this impoverished landlocked South American nation that was ruled by the rightwing Colorado Party for 61 years.

POLITICS-SOUTHERN AFRICA: SADC Summit Under Way

A free trade agreement is one of the main points on the agenda at the Southern African Development Community (SADC) summit presently under way in Johannesburg, South Africa. The summit will also discuss political problems in Zimbabwe, Malawi and Lesotho and consider protocols on gender and poverty eradication.

PHILIPPINES: Hungry for Rice, Unwilling to Invest

When the price of rice nearly doubled to about 90 US cents per kilo, two months ago, Liza Valino put cheaper substitutes like bananas and sweet potatoes on the table to feed her family of ten. But no one was satisfied.

DEVELOPMENT-AFRICA: Retailer Creates Jobs With Green Practices

Seven years ago, 54 subsistence farmers in the Umbumbulu district on the KwaZulu-Natal coast of South Africa were struggling to feed their families. They could barely pay their children’s school fees.

POLITICS-PARAGUAY: Rocky Road Ahead for Lugo

Amidst anticipation and apprehension regarding the imminent political transition, Paraguay is gearing up for Friday’s inauguration of centre-left President-elect Fernando Lugo, known as the "bishop of the poor", who is putting an end to six decades of Colorado Party rule.