COTE D’IVOIRE: Challenge of Restoring Security

In a shelter covered by a tattered blue tarpaulin, Ibrahim Traoré sits beside his militia commander to hear complaints from residents of the Abidjan neighbourhood of Abobo-Avocatier.

PAKISTAN: Blood Donors Save Lives in Peshawar

If there’s one thing positive that has come out of the violence in this part of Pakistan, it is that people have developed a culture of donating blood that helps save lives, say doctors in the northeastern city of Peshawar.

PAKISTAN: Tribes Plead for End to Army Offensives

Fear and anxiety have spread among residents of North Waziristan in northwest Pakistan after U.S. Admiral Mike Mullen, outgoing Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, announced that the Pakistani government would launch a major offensive in the area.

MIDEAST: September Knocks on Israeli Gates

"September 2011 is knocking on our gates," says an Israeli army officer who, under strict operation procedures, would not reveal his name. He was alluding to the United Nations General Assembly annual meeting expected to resoundingly endorse the Palestinian drive for recognition of statehood.

Urban Transformation for Interethnic Cities

Urban centres, marked by globalisation, migration and the intermingling of culturally and ethnically diverse communities were among the major topics of the International Conference on the Inter-ethnic City held in Rome last week on the eve of the celebrations of Italy’s national day.

Healthier Kids Healthier Development by Vannaphone Sitthirath

 

Ahmadinejad’s Subsidy Reductions Squeeze Iran’s Producers

Owners of industrial and agricultural enterprises who initially welcomed Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's plan to reduce subsidies by lifting the price-support system for basic goods have now become its chief critics.

BELARUS: Despite Crackdown, Opposition is Defiant

President Alexander Lukashenko has locked most of his rivals in jail, but the Belarus opposition continues to work diligently to isolate the dictator.

Ecobreves – HONDURAS: Government Promotes Agro-Forestry Systems

The government of Honduras plans to implement an agro-forestry systems program in various regions of the country. These systems combine trees, agricultural crops and livestock raising, and are aimed at raising food production while mitigating the impacts of climate change.

Ecobreves – BRAZIL: Grape Waste a Potential Source of Income

Grape bagasse and seeds, now viewed as waste products of wine and juice production, could actually be an additional source of income, according to research by the Food Agroindustry department of the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation.

Ecobreves – VENEZUELA: NGO Fights Capture of Dolphins

Environmental activists are calling on the Venezuelan government to prohibit the capture of Amazon river dolphins from the Orinoco River, after four of the animals died between January and April as the result of contaminated water in their pools at the aquarium in Valencia, an industrial city west of Caracas.

Ecobreves – CUBA: First Eco-Friendly Apartment Block

Construction has been completed on Cuba’s first "green" apartment building, equipped with technology for the more efficient use of water and electricity, thanks to a project supported by the government of Norway and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP).

The South Holds the Key to Climate Change

Efforts to combat climate change should focus on the developing South, because that is where industry, population and the demand for energy are growing, says Christiana Figueres, the UN’s top climate change official.

MIDEAST: Settling Into Humiliation

For 61-year-old Abd al-Rahim Bisharat, life in the Bedouin community of al- Hadidiya in the northern Jordan Valley is anything but easy. "The problem is not only poverty, but the degree of how (the Israelis) treat us as humans, our rights as humans," Bisharat told IPS over the phone from his home, with the sound of roosters crowing in the background. "We have no transportation, no electricity, no water, no health, no education.

MIDEAST: Killer Butterfly Takes Wing

"Look, a swallowtail!" A 70-year old moustachioed man hops jubilantly between rocks and prickly flowers, chasing a butterfly. "And look here!" What looks like a dragonfly hovers around in a mechanical whirr of transparent wings.

MIDEAST: Worse by the Day in Jerusalem

As thousands of right-wing Israeli settlers descended on Jerusalem to celebrate the so-called unification of the city this week, Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem were confronted by extreme provocations and the stark reality that their city remains very much divided.

Libya Dominates EU-Africa Talks

Facing unrest in the north and a struggle against poverty elsewhere, leaders of the African Union and their European counterparts are working as "equal partners" to spread democracy and economic opportunity across the African continent.

Human Rights Teachings Spread Ripples of Hope

In a new curriculum introduced last December, thousands of students in New York State are learning about modern-day human rights defenders, and that they too can make a positive difference in the world.

CARIBBEAN: EU Trade Pact Brings Both Setbacks and Opportunities

In his first address to the board of governors of the Barbados-based Caribbean Development Bank (CDB), Dr. Warren Smith, the new president of the region's premier lending financial institution, warned of insecurities engulfing Caribbean economies.

‘Europe Worsening Hunger Worldwide’

With spiralling food prices threatening to leave millions more people hungry every year, European countries must abandon subsidies and higher production targets for biofuels, the anti-poverty group Oxfam warns.

South African civil society organisations are calling on the Government, churches and communities to join forces in the fight against corrective rape.

South African civil society organisations are calling on the Government, churches and communities to join forces in the fight against corrective rape. Zukiswa Zimela reports from Johannesburg.