Ecobreves – HONDURAS: Indigenous Groups Denounce Logging in Protected Areas

Representatives of the Federation of Xicaques and Tolupanes Tribes denounced the illegal incursion of loggers into the forests where Honduran indigenous communities live, in the central department of Francisco Morazán and the northern department of Yoro.

Ecobreves – VENEZUELA: University Forest Expropriated

Venezuela's National Lands Institute confiscated the land of the Central San Nicolás University's field research station, some 1,400 hectares dedicated to agricultural studies. The institute then settled 51 rural families there.

Ecobreves – BRAZIL: New Technique for Reducing Dumps

A new garbage treatment system, developed by Ronaldo Izzo, a researcher at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, could reduce the area covered by dumps by 75 percent. The technique consists of treating the waste and using it to make the soil of the landfill impermeable.

Kazakhstan Leads Battle to Ban Nuclear Testing

The first International Day against Nuclear Testing will be marked Sunday by festivities in Astana, Kazakhstan and major cities around the world, with the goal of raising awareness of the importance of banning nuclear tests and to educate people on the catastrophic effects past tests have had on human beings and the environment.

Brian Moonga takes a look at Lusaka’s George Water Supply Project

Brian Moonga takes a look at Lusaka's George Water Supply Project  

US: Salmonella Outbreak Tied to Factory Farming

As regulators traced the U.S. salmonella outbreak spread by infected eggs back to the hen feed used at two Iowa farms Thursday, many groups are pointing the blame at the factory farm system from which the eggs – and bacteria – came.

HAITI: Scraping by on Mud Cookies

At six in the morning in Cite Soleil, the poorest zone of Haiti's capital city, the sun is already up. It's the start of another workday for Lurene Jeanti, making cookies from mud, butter and salt. She's been mixing the ingredients on the side of the road to sell to her neighbours for the past eight years.

Groups Praise U.S. Rights Report as Good First Step

In the first ever U.N.-mandated self-assessment of the United States' human rights record, the Barack Obama administration has reaffirmed its commitment to closing the detention centre at Guantanamo Bay and to fixing the country's "broken immigration system".

INDIA: Activists Use Legal Weapons to Stop Thermal Power Plants

Green activists have various ways of pushing their causes, from enlisting movie stars to launching protests, but India’s campaigners have also been quietly using legal weapons to try to get the projects they oppose, such as thermal plants, stopped or reversed.

ENERGY: Is Fracking Even Worse Than Drilling?

With cleanup of the Gulf of Mexico barely underway, energy companies are already assuming a crouching stance in anticipation of a no-holds-barred attack by environmentalists on what the industry says is the next major breakthrough in natural resource extraction.

MALAWI: Women Candidates Hard Hit by Election Postponement

News that Malawi’s November local government elections are to be postponed yet again has hit female candidates hard – and mostly in their pockets. And it could mean that the country will have less female candidates to vote for when they finally go to the polls.

HEALTH-UGANDA: Problems with Anti-Counterfeit Bill Persist

Health rights activists still insist that, despite some improvements to Uganda’s controversial Anti-Counterfeiting Bill, it will affect the availability of generic medicine if enacted in present form.

Climate-related Security Predictions Coming True in Pakistan

Analysts have been warning for several years that the impacts of climate change directly relate to the national security of the U.S. and other countries, but the link has never been so clear as it is today in northwest Pakistan.

Mali Nomads Flee Drought

Nomadic communities in northern Mali's desert regions are facing one of the most serious droughts of the last twenty years.

MIDEAST: ‘McCarthyism’ Rises in Israel

Rightwing Israeli groups financially supported by Jewish and fundamentalist Christian groups from abroad are on a campaign to undermine free thought in Israeli universities. Collaterally, a move is under way by right-wing parties in the Knesset, Israel's parliament, to limit the freedom of action of civil and human rights-minded NGOs.

MALAWI: Campaign Against Female Vice President a Campaign Against Equality

The future of women’s political representation in Malawi has come into question as the ruling Democratic People’s Party (DPP) launched a smear campaign against its own member, the country’s female Vice President Joyce Banda. Many had hoped Banda would become the country’s first female president in 2014.

THAILAND: Sweeping Support Sought for Domestic Workers’ Rights

"My male employer was a womaniser and he liked to touch me and told me not to tell his wife. I felt so uncomfortable," says Chompoo, who was just 15 years old when she served – and suffered abuse – as a domestic worker here in the Thai capital.

Sao Tome and Principe at Oil Bonanza Crossroads

With an estimated 10 billion barrels of oil in the Gulf of Guinea, the small archipelago of Sao Tome and Principe faces the possibility of benefiting from considerable oil revenues. However, a report released by Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Tuesday documents the difficulties in managing the revenues from the hydrocarbon business in an effective and transparent way.

AFGHANISTAN: Ouster of Contractors Throws U.S. Strategy in Doubt

Charging that U.S. private security contractors are "mafia- like groups" being financed by U.S. taxpayers to carry out "terrorist activities" with the support of the U.S. government, Afghan President Hamid Karzai has ordered a four- month phaseout of all private security companies in his embattled country.

Gender Equality Goals Miss the Mark, Women’s Groups Say

A month ahead of the 2010 Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) review summit at the United Nations, some women's groups are voicing concern that member states' commitment to women's issues is insufficient and slowing progress towards gender parity worldwide.

Pakistani Officials Seek Funds, Debt Relief in Washington

Pakistani officials continued their quest for help in light of the floods that have affected 20 million people in their country by meeting with officials at the International Monetary Fund here Monday.