Ecobreves – CUBA: Electricity from Garbage

A biogas plant with the capacity to process 21 tons of urban waste daily will be inaugurated in September in Havana. The methane gas produced will be enough to generate 60 kilowatts of energy per hour.

HEALTH-MEXICO: Internet Can Be a Dangerous Pharmacy

Mexico is drafting measures to regulate the sales of pharmaceuticals over the Internet: reforms have been announced for laws dating back to the 1980s, when the world wide web did not yet exist, and new monitoring systems are in the works to track the who, how and what of online sales.

Q&A: Shared Water Resources – Source of Conflict or Cooperation?

Over the past decade, numerous media and research reports have have anticipated wars over water in Africa. As far back as 1998, the Institute for Security Studies presented a research paper stating that water is "recognized as a fundamental political weapon in the Southern African region. Water will increasingly shape the international relations and security arrangements of Southern Africa."

POLITICS-ZIMBABWE: Transition Not Yet Taking Shape

There is a general consensus in Zimbabwe that the only way out of the current crisis is dialogue between the two main political parties, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) and the Zimbabwe African National Union Patriotic Front (ZANU PF).

POLITICS-INDIA: Nuking Democracy

As the parliamentary floor test for the controversial United States-India nuclear cooperation deal approaches, the domestic political odds seem to be turning against India’s ruling United Progressive Alliance government led by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

POLITICS: Report Slams Small Arms “Leakage”

As the United Nations wound down its third biannual meeting on small arms and light weapons Friday, experts agreed that governmental negligence and the lack of basic safeguards have facilitated illicit small arms and light weapons proliferation in many regions across the globe.

Q&A: "Reproductive Rights Can Overcome the Conservative Wave"

This year marks four decades of international recognition of people's right to decide how many children they want to have and when, and for that reason there is a great deal to celebrate, says Brazilian expert Carmen Barroso, of the International Planned Parenthood Federation.

CORRUPTION: Laundromat Royale

It sounded like the plot of an action thriller. A U.S. Senate subcommittee held hearings Thursday on how UBS/Switzerland, the world's largest private bank, and LGT (Liechtenstein Global Trust), owned by the royal family of that micro-tax-haven state, organised complex tax evasion schemes for U.S. clients, and used spy-type tactics to avoid being detected.

ZIMBABWE: ‘‘Companies Cutting Ties Will Hit Average Person Most’’

As state violence in Zimbabwe worsens, economists in the capital Harare have warned that cutting international economic ties with the country will hit the average person the hardest.

PAKISTAN: Schoolgirls Lured To Suicide Bombing

"I was able to save my daughter from becoming a suicide bomber. She had been lured by her teacher at the religious school," said Jamilur Rehman, a Pakistani schoolteacher, whose 13-year-old daughter was taken away by a Taliban group to be trained as a suicide bomber in North Waziristan, a lawless border area.

DEVELOPMENT: U.S. Sliding By Nearly Every Measure

The United States is "woefully behind" other developed countries when it comes to providing opportunities and choices - the very essence of the so-called "American Dream" - according to a new analysis ranking the quality of life in the country.

DEVELOPMENT-MADAGASCAR: Not Enough Money for Basic Water

Safe drinking water is a scarce resource in Madagascar. Considerable financial investment is needed to improve sanitation and water treatment and distribution for the population of this large island.

POLITICS-US: McCain Gets Religion

Over the course of the past few months, Senator John McCain, the Republican Party's presumptive presidential nominee, accepted and then rejected the endorsements of the controversial pastors Rod Parsley and John Hagee, after media reports about Parsley's vitriol toward Islam and Hagee's views that the Holocaust was part of God's biblical plan for the Jews to move to Israel.

POPULATION-INDIA: Emergency Contraception Pill The Answer?

With unintended pregnancies and unsafe abortions continuing to be a serious problem in India, some doctors have begun advocating use of the emergency contraceptive (EC) pill as a possible solution, though conditions in India are regarded far from conducive.

EUROPE: New Punishment Planned for Hiring Migrant Workers

Efforts by the European Union to penalise employers who hire unauthorised immigrants have drawn criticism from both business lobbyists and trade unionists.

Q&A: "Iran Won't Wait for Obama to Talk to U.S."

Despite opposition from some hardline factions in Iran, the government of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has responded positively to a proposal by the United States that it open a U.S. Interests Section in Tehran - its first formal diplomatic presence since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

DEVELOPMENT-MAURITIUS: Water – Waste Not, Want Not

The 1.2 million-strong population of Mauritius presently enjoys plentiful piped potable water from the 2000 mm average annual rainfall that falls over the island annually. But large amounts of water are wasted, and with growing demand from new development, the island's water security may come under pressure in the near future.

GUYANA: Another Cold Shoulder From Washington

The U.S. government has again snubbed Guyanese authorities, with whom it has long had a strained relationship, this time over a request for expert help in solving the latest of three mass murders this year.

Q&A: 'No Peace Without Justice'

In the aftermath of massive human rights abuses such as the Srebenica massacre, the Rwanda genocide, or in Liberia and northern Uganda, the search for justice and reconciliation can be a controversial and dangerous business.

ITALY: Being a Refugee Becomes a Dream

Ernestine Kayindo fled Goma town in the northeast of the Democratic Republic of Congo in 1997 amidst fighting between the regular army and rebels of the National Congress for the Defence of the People (NCDP), a Tutsi armed group that is still active.

CHINA: War on Drugs Prompts More Executions

China’s intensified "people’s war on drugs" is undermining efforts to reform the use of the death penalty in the country believed to be the world’s most prolific executioner.