Ecobreves – HONDURAS: Company Fined for Environmental Damages

The thermal energy company San Lorenzo Light and Power (Lufussa), which operates in the southern Honduran city of the same name, will have to pay 32,000 dollars in fines for the damages resulting from a fuel spill in July 2009.

Ecobreves – MEXICO: Forest Communities Demand Effective Management

The indigenous communities that inhabit Mexico's forests should participate in all forest-use policies, according to a civil society campaign launched on Nov. 23.

Ecobreves – BRAZIL: Soy Biodiesel Produces Genetic Mutations

Contact with biodiesel, seen as an alternative fuel that is less harmful than fossil fuels, could be causing genetic mutations, concludes a doctoral thesis study by Daniela Morais Leme, at Brazil's State University of São Paulo.

CLIMATE CHANGE: Don’t Look to South Africa for Leadership

South Africa is Africa’s largest economy and the continent's biggest emitter of greenhouse gases. The country’s emissions per capita are on par with those of the United Kingdom, and more than twice as high as China’s emissions by the same measure.

Prenatal Care Key to Reducing Maternal Mortality

Despite successive awareness campaigns, many Malian women see no need to attend pre-natal check-ups. Health workers say this results in an elevated rate of maternal and infant mortality.

THAILAND: Photo Exhibition Captures Human Rights – And Wrongs

In this fast-developing South-east Asian country where dizzying neon signboards and glass-clad skyscrapers have been overshadowed only by a colourful political battle, a group of young photographers are hoping their work behind the lens can bring human rights back into focus.

Senegal Debates Merits of Ban on Begging

The face of the Senegalese capital has been transformed. The beggars who swarmed along its major arteries, especially in the centre of the city, its biggest markets and independence square are gone.

MADAGASCAR: New Livelihoods to Protect A River’s Life

The Nosivolo River has the greatest concentration of freshwater fish species in Madagascar. Strengthening protection of the river's biodiversity has involved transforming the livelihoods of local people.

Promise of Elbow Room for Malawi Students

The announcement that 5,000 new classrooms will be built thanks to a $140 million World Bank loan would come as welcome news at the Chitowo Primary School - if only the children sitting on the floors, perched on doors and in windows, even taking lessons in the dust beneath trees in the yard could hear it.

U.S.: Going Hungry in the Richest Nation on Earth

While many U.S. residents prepare for their annual Thanksgiving feast Thursday, one in six are at risk of hunger – including a quarter of all children in the country.

EU: Extraditions Process Abuses Suspects

Robert Hörchner can only sleep for two hours at night before the sweating starts. His wife Annelies wakes up frequently, too; each time she hears a noise outside she opens the curtains, expecting to see police at the front door. The couple are traumatised because Robert spent ten months locked up in a filthy Polish cell. He has been accused of holding the lease to a property where cannabis was grown but insists that he is innocent.

PHILIPPINES: Welcome to the Women-Friendly Jail

"I was shocked when I saw them," says 18-year-old detainee Chona (not her real name) of the first time she saw the duplex-style bungalows painted in pastel colours that make up her ‘home’.

CLIMATE CHANGE: Gap Between Science and Pledges Likely to Outlive Cancun

Though there is widespread acknowledgement that the ambitions for this year's climate change conference are considerably lower than for last year's, the U.N. and other groups say even the deal struck a year ago will not go far enough to stop climate change.

MALAWI: Traditional Birthing House Rises From the Rubble


Cecilia Tomoka's birthing centre stood unused for three years before the 2009 earthquake flattened it. Now she's rebuilding the house - and her practice - as Malawi's government lifts a ban on traditional birth attendants.

RIGHTS: Getting Harassment on the Map

Less common but perhaps more useful than the tourist map is the 'harassment map' that many Cairo women are beginning to refer to.

BIODIVERSITY: Asia Acts To Pry Tigers From Jaws Of Extinction

It is the national animal of several Asian countries, lends its name to brands as varied as budget airlines to alcoholic beverages, and features prominently in Asian mythology, including the Chinese zodiac. But unless there is a dramatic turnaround for the tiger, conservationists say, this giant feline could become extinct before the next Chinese Year of the Tiger in 2022.

South Expo Highlights Homegrown Poverty Solutions

The Third Annual Global South-South Development Expo (GSSD Expo) opened Monday in Geneva with more than 400 delegates from over 40 countries gathered to showcase innovative solutions to poverty challenges that have been created in developing countries.

Pulling the Plug on Violent Propaganda

A review of modern human history finds no shortage of instances where hate speech has fuelled genocidal rampages against minority ethnic groups.

Caribbean Gets Wired with Help from EU, World Bank

When Caribbean leaders gather for their annual summit in July 2011, they expect to finally have a draft information and communication technology (ICT) for development strategy that technocrats have been putting together over the past three years.

Ecobreves – VENEZUELA: Protests Against Sale of Pink River Dolphins

Thousands of residents in the Venezuelan city of Valencia signed petitions to convince the government to halt the shipment of two pink river dolphins (Inia geoffrensis) to Daejeon Aquaworld, in South Korea.

Ecobreves – HONDURAS: Financing for a Million-Dollar Wind Project

The Central American Economic Integration Bank (BCIE) will provide 209.3 million dollars in financing for a company with U.S. capital to generate wind energy in Cerro de Hula, south of the Honduran capital.