ZIMBABWE: Questions Raised Over Water Treatment Funding

The memories of Zimbabwe's 2008-2009 cholera outbreak are fresh in the minds of everyone except the people who have the safety of the country's water in their hands.

The Novelist at Sixteen

At first glance, Sara Samarasinghe's website could be any teenager's: cheerful pink text scrawled against a black background, blog entries about summer clothing sales, and lists of favourites: music (Kelly Clarkson), movies (10 Things I Hate About You), and quotes (Jennifer Aniston, J. K. Rowling).

Commission Takes a Hard Look at Free-for-All Migration

At 35, Daniel James has his mind set on leaving Trinidad and Tobago "for greener pastures".

SINGAPORE: Youth Games Expose Olympic-sized Cracks

Just a month after the buzz from the vuvuzelas ended at the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa, Singapore is busy preparing to host the next major event in the world sports calendar – the Youth Olympic Games. But few seem to know, or care, about the inaugural youth version of the venerable Olympic Games.

AUSTRALIA: Enough of Uranium Mining, Say Aboriginal Communities

As a mining giant prepares to open a major uranium mining site in Western Australia next year, the clamour for the state to once more ban mining of the radioactive mineral has become louder.

Ecobreves – ARGENTINA: National Park Expropriated

An Argentine environmental group is challenging a decision by the central province of San Luis, which in late July expropriated a protected area to turn it over to an indigenous community.

Ecobreves – BRAZIL: Bacteria Inventory of the Atlantic Forest

A study by the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation produced the Collection of Bacteria from the Atlantic Forest, Brazil's most deforested ecosystem. The collection marks the beginning of a project to record all of the forest's biodiversity.

Ecobreves – MEXICO: A Boost to Oil-Producing Crops

The Mexican government's plan to promote oil-producing crops like canola is being challenged by experts.

ISRAEL: Kibbutz Returns With Moneyed Communism

It was an idea that became an institution, and that became the moving spirit behind the creation of the State of Israel. These were people who wanted to change the world. Now, they're content to live a life of carefree irrelevance. That's the Kibbutz today.

ARTS: Walking in the Shoes of a Muslim in New York

A woman waits on a subway platform, head bowed, pretending to ignore the insults. Perched on bar stools, a group of friends listen to racist jokes, suppressing giggles. Kneeling, a young war veteran tells his fiancée of his decision to return to combat. Two men wait expectantly at a job interview. An old man and a young graffiti artist sit together on a bench, discussing the power of language.

MALAWI: Urban Dwellers Adopting Dry Sanitation

Diarrhoea causes more deaths than malaria and AIDS combined, yet while funding to fight the latter two have risen sharply, the same cannot be said of resources available for hygiene, sanitation and clean drinking water.

CHINA: A Parade Less, A Step Forward

Understanding that sex workers have rights too may still be some way off in China, but the government’s decision to stop police from parading them in public to humiliate them appears to reflect changing public attitudes toward those in the sex trade.

MALAWI: Vaccination Foiled by Divine Intervention

Dowa, central Malawi: medical staff struggle to vaccinate frightened children clinging to their parents, as an armed policeman stands guard.

FILM: Music for a New Abolitionist Movement

Musician Justin Dillon had been reading about human trafficking before he went on tour to Eastern Europe. In Russia, his young female translator told him about offers she was receiving to move west for jobs that seemed too good to be true - and with no paperwork to back them up.

PAKISTAN: Flood Disaster Means Starting from Zero

"We swam the whole day to get hold of the elderly and women swept away by floodwaters," recalled 27-year-old Shahid Ali of Charsadda district, one of the areas in north-western Pakistan badly hit by devastating monsoon rains.

DR CONGO: Sticks And Straw Out of Our Schools

Led by the local church, residents of Gungu administrative zone, in the southwestern Democratic Republic of Congo have used their own resources to transform the conditions in which their children study.

HAITI: Gonaives Girds for Heavy Storm Season

Gonaives, the third largest city in Haiti, is rushing to prepare for an expected highly active hurricane season. The city was flooded by three hurricanes in the past six years - Hannah and Ike in 2008, and Jeanne, which killed at least 2,500 people in 2004.

ISRAEL: Women Take On the Orthodox

Jerusalem is a city blessed but also cursed by its own holiness. No more so than here at 'Ground Zero', the religious epicentre within the walled Old City, beneath the most disputed holy site -- the Haram al-Sharif or Noble Sanctuary as known to Muslims, Har Habayit or the Temple Mount for Jews.

Ecobreves – BRAZIL: Plastic Cuts Wastewater Treatment Costs

A polyethylene plastic bracket, to replace the stones and imported synthetic materials used in filtering sewage water, is poised to help Brazil overcome its sanitation problems.

Ecobreves – LATIN AMERICA: First Ethics Tribunal for Border Mining

The First Ethics Tribunal on Border Mining in Latin America will hear cases involving Argentina and Chile, Bolivia and Brazil, and Ecuador and Peru in its Sep. 30 sessions in the Chilean capital.

Ecobreves – VENEZUELA: Small Grants Program Arrives

The Small Grants Program of the United Nations will provide support at a maximum of 50,000 dollars to initiatives from non-governmental organizations, academic groups and communities in Venezuela for mitigating climate change and promoting the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity.