POLITICS-US: One-Fifth of Iraq Funding Paid to Contractors

As a new report forecasts that the 190,000 private contractors in Iraq and neighbouring countries will cost U.S. taxpayers more than 100 billion dollars by the end of 2008, an under-the-radar Florida court case suggests that U.S. President George W. Bush - a staunch contractor supporter - is preparing to throw security contractors such as Blackwater under the political bus.

PARAGUAY: Concerns, Tension Rise with Water Level in Yacyreta Dam

Hundreds of people living in the Paraguayan border city of Encarnación are worried about flooding as the result of a rise in water level in the Yacyretá hydroelectric dam, an issue that is also causing tension between Paraguay and Argentina.

PAKISTAN: Civilians Flee Fresh Fighting in Tribal Area

"We have been staying in this camp for two days. My daughter is still in Loi Sam which we left due to heavy shelling by the army," says Gul Pari, who fled the fighting in volatile Bajaur Agency, a tribal area on Pakistan’s northern border.

AFGHANISTAN: Security Fears Paralyse Kabul

It used to take Esmazari 15 minutes to cross town in his faded mustard Corolla. But the police shutdown of nearly half of Kabul's major arteries, in response to a spate of suicide bombings that ripped across the capital city in recent months, means that today Esmazari's taxi spends a full hour to make the same trip.

CAMBODIA: 'Getting Decent Jobs for Women – The Challenge'

‘Women are cloth, men are gold’. This traditional Khmer saying is quoted by many studies on gender in Cambodia as emblematic of the different value accorded to men and women in this country of 14 million.

HEALTH-MEXICO: Local Drug Companies Protest Opening of Market

Mexico’s pharmaceutical industry, which thanks to laws that have been labelled protectionist has grown into the most powerful in Latin America, warns that the unrestricted importation of medicines decided by the government will expose the public to "a possible health catastrophe."

DEVELOPMENT-SOMALIA: Finding Water in Mogadishu

Pipes, reservoirs and water treatment plants in south and central Somalia have been extensively vandalised in the years since the collapse of Siad Barre's government in 1991. In the long absence of central authority, Mogadishu's residents have devised their own informal water distribution systems, but there are many shortcomings.

POLITICS-CHINA: Tough Policy in Xinjiang Backfires

China’s success in eliminating clusters of Muslim insurgencies in the western province of Xinjiang may have pushed an alleged separatist movement across the border into Pakistan and Afghanistan, exposing it to greater influences by jihadist groups in those countries.

RIGHTS: Inter-American Court Focuses on Forced Disappearances

Manfredo Velásquez was a student at the National Autonomous University of Honduras when he was violently arrested by intelligence agents without a warrant on the afternoon of Sept. 12, 1981.

HEALTH-US: HIV On The Rise

A new study shows that the annual number of HIV infections in the United States is greater than was previously believed. The findings place increased scrutiny on the country’s lack of a national HIV/AIDS program as well as the current Presidential candidates’ plans to combat the epidemic.

GEORGIA: Israeli Arms Sales Raise New Concerns

With the eruption of fighting between Russia and Georgia, Israel has found itself in an awkward position as a result of its arms sales to Georgia, caught between its friendly relations with Georgia and its fear that the continued sale of weaponry will spark Russian retribution in the form of increased arms sales to Iran and Syria.

Q&A: 'China Is Capitalist, Not Communist'

As one of the nuclear physicists behind the Manhattan Project, Joan Hinton commands awe. But she chucked it all to go to China in 1948 and take part in the Communist Revolution. Now 86, she works on a dairy farm near Beijing, her sense of humour unaffected by a stroke suffered 10 years ago.

MEXICO: Outcry Against Soaring Crime

Indignation over the lack of public security in Mexico, fuelled by the kidnapping and murder of the teenage son of a well-known businessman, apparently by police officers, prompted the announcement of an Aug. 30 march to protest the growing levels of crime and demand more effective law enforcement.

EL SALVADOR: Hard-Line Policies Vs Rule of Law

Increasingly tough "zero tolerance" laws have been the government’s response to the growing wave of crime in El Salvador, one of the most violent countries in the world. But judges and experts say the strategy is undermining the state of law.

AFGHANISTAN: Justice Is Hard to Import

Norway has announced a small but significant grant for reforms of Afghanistan's justice sector, which observers say is still severely underdeveloped seven years after the U.S. invasion.

Q&A: Bashir Pushed, But Not Yet Into a Corner

Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court Luis Moreno-Ocampo requested last month that the court's preliminary panel issue an arrest warrant for Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir for crimes allegedly committed in Sudan's western Darfur region.

MEDIA: Olympics Draw Harvest of Online Protests

Say goodbye to the usual slogan-shouting and banner-carrying protest actions, because one does not even have to be anywhere near China to push a mix of causes - from Tibet and Burma to Darfur. Online creativity is the name of the game.

Ecobreves – MEXICO: Eye On Climate Change and Renewable Energy

A scientific report, entrusted to the Veracruzana University of Mexico, will measure the impact of climate change on renewable energy.

Ecobreves – HONDURAS: No Justice for Murdered Ecologists

Environmental and human rights organizations in Honduras have sought measures from the Inter-American Human Rights court following the escape of three of the four policemen implicated in the murder of ecologists Heraldo Zúniga and Roger Iván Murillo.

Ecobreves – ARGENTINA: Petrified Forest to Be National Park

Argentina’s parliament is studying a bill that would create a new national park in the southern province of Santa Cruz in order to preserve its unique petrified forest.

Ecobreves – BRAZIL: Electric Motorcycle On the Horizon

The electric motorcycle will be able to travel one kilometer per one cent of the Brazilian real (.006 dollars). This super-efficient bike will enter its final testing phase this month and will be launched in 2009 by the Brazilian electric company CPFL.