PARAGUAY: University Students on the March Again

After nearly two decades of apathy, the university student movement in Paraguay has made a comeback, demanding a law to grant them rebates on public transport fares and opposing a draft law on higher education reform.

EUROPE: Sanctions on Sudan Urged

The European Union has been urged to impose sanctions on Sudan over its refusal to apprehend two men accused of crimes against humanity in the country's deeply troubled western province of Darfur.

EUROPE: Irish Say No to Military and Neo-Liberalism

The rejection of the European Union's latest treaty by Ireland's electorate has been interpreted as a vote against the bloc's increasing emphasis on bolstering its military capacities and its efforts to prioritise free market principles over social protection.

Q&A: 'One Hundred Reasons To Be Punished With Death in Egypt'

A death sentence in Egypt appears easy to receive - in fact there are 59 laws enabling judges to deprive a citizen of life, covering 105 crimes.

DEVELOPMENT: Brazilians Resist Finnish Plantations

Displaced Finnish factory workers and landless peasants in Brazil have become unlikely allies in a struggle for livelihoods. They are both fighting the Finnish-Swedish forestry giant Stora Enso.

MOROCCO: Local Government Holds Up Development

Lack of political will on the part of some municipalities is hindering an ambitious national plan for human development, activists say.

ENVIRONMENT-US: "Water Is Alive, It Hears Our Words"

Native Americans and others completed a 10-day "Walk for the Water" this week along the Chattahoochee River, which some estimates say will dry up completely by 2025 due to pressure from the rapidly growing city of Atlanta.

NEPAL: Education Far More than ABCs – Experts

Far more than just the learning of ABCs and 123s, education should be playing a transformative role in children’s lives if it is to ensure them a better and more ‘equal’ and gender-responsive future.

SCIENCE: Paint that Purifies the Air

Rooms with foul odours? Cigarette smoke? A new paint for interior walls is capable of breaking down toxic substances in the air.

NEPAL: Gender Inequality in Education Has Deep Roots

A shortage of female teachers, lack of proper training, inadequate delivery of services and indifferent attitudes combine to add to gender inequality in education in this small Himalayan nation.

RIGHTS-SOUTHERN AFRICA: Xenophobia Impacts on Mozambique

A month ago, 47-year-old Catarina Manungo was the owner of a two-bedroom house in Boksburg, where she lived with her four children and a grand-daughter. A few short weeks later, Manungo and her two youngest children find themselves living in a tent in the Maputo neighbourhood of Matola Garre.

ENVIRONMENT: Beavers Returning From The Dead

Scotland and Wales look set to import a bunch of beavers from Norway 400 years after the rodent was hunted to extinction. This will be the first ever official reintroduction of a native mammal to the United Kingdom.

NEPAL: Living In a Republic

A week after Nepal was declared a republic, in the small sleepy town of Lele, some 30 km away from the capital Kathmandu, Dhurba Kumar Sunar, 41, goes about his day like any other.

FINANCE: Inflation to Overshadow Aid at G8 Talks

Inflation is to dominate two-day talks of wealthy nations' finance ministers despite warnings that millions of people face death because of a shortfall in development aid.

RIGHTS-US: High Court Sides with Guantanamo Detainees

Rights groups lauded a U.S. Supreme Court ruling Thursday that reinstated the principle of habeas corpus for detainees at the prison for terrorism suspects in the Guantanamo Bay U.S. naval base in Cuba.

BOLIVIA: Domestics to Gain Healthcare Coverage

Domestic workers in Bolivia, most of whom are young indigenous women from the highlands region, are about to gain access to healthcare coverage.

ENVIRONMENT-AFRICA: Seeking a Common Position on Climate Change

The Twelfth African Ministerial Conference on Environment (AMCEN) ended five days of deliberations today with governments and civil society agreed - separately - on the importance of developing a common position for Africa at next year's climate change talks in Copenhagen.

SPAIN: Truck Strike Continues, Despite Deal

Although the Spanish government reached an agreement with the main truckers’ unions, around 10 percent of drivers continued blocking roads Thursday on the fourth day of a strike over soaring oil prices.

BOOKS-IRAQ: The Fruit of a Poisonous Tree

For those seeking different and deeper reasons why Iraq ended up where it is today, other than the often-cited but somewhat clichéd list of blunders like the disbanding of the Iraqi army and dissolving of the Baath party, Jonathan Steele's "Defeat: Why America and Britain Lost Iraq" is a must-read.

ETHIOPIA: Western Allies Ignoring Gov’t Abuses, Report Says

Since a battle last year against rebels in eastern Ethiopia's Somali Region, Ethiopia's government and armed forces have been committing war crimes and crimes against humanity by subjecting ethnic Somali nomads to executions, torture and rape, according to a Human Rights Watch (HRW) report released Thursday.

RIGHTS-US: Despite Legal Blow, Taser Use by Police to Expand

Taser International, the manufacturer of conducted energy weapons known as stun guns or Tasers, is once again implicated in deaths caused in part by deployment of the weapon.