Ecobreves – CUBA: Less Pollution, More Savings

A forest biomass gasification plant to produce electricity in Cocodrilo, a tiny community on Cuba's Isla de la Juventud, would mean considerable savings in fuel and reduce the emissions of greenhouse-effect gases.

Ecobreves – HONDURAS: Alliance for Food Sovereignty

Around 30 non-governmental organizations in Honduras make up the Alliance for Food Sovereignty, whose mission is to promote sustainable agriculture and reforms that give a boost to small farmers.

Rewriting 195 Million Stories of Childhood Malnutrition

In a vast field, a sinewy, dark-skinned man bends at the waist, slicing stalks of wheat with a small machete. In a village, a mother gently places her infant son, slung in a piece of blue fabric, onto a vegetable scale housed in a makeshift clinic.

Wildfires Increasing Despite Efforts to Slow Deforestation

An agreement reached at an international conference last week pledged over four billion dollars to the U.N.'s effort to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions that come from deforestation and forest degradation. But a study published Friday questions what impact that effort, called REDD, can have.

TRADE: Resistance Persists Against Early Harvest in Doha Round

Although the issue of an early harvest for least developed countries (LDCs) has been raised time and again, there remains "a certain reluctance" to prioritise it in the World Trade Organisation’s Doha Round of trade talks, according to South African trade minister Dr Rob Davies.

DR CONGO: Rights Defender’s Death Renews Calls to End Impunity

Floribert Chebeya, executive secretary of human rights group Voice of the Voiceless, was discovered dead in his car early in the morning of Jun. 2. Numerous journalists and human right activists have been killed in suspicious circumstances in the Democratic Republic of Congo in the past five years.

BRAZIL: Saturation Policing Criminalises Poverty, Activists Say

The policy of a saturation police presence in the favelas or shantytowns that are home to around 20 percent of the population of this Brazilian city is merely a means of criminalising poverty, because it does nothing to address the underlying question of social exclusion, which drives the violence, human rights groups complain.

Corporate Greenwash at EU Environment Meet?

Coca-Cola, recently indicted for causing serious damage to water and soil in India, might seem like an odd champion of environmental protection.

BURMA: HIV Infection on the Rise Among Men Who Have Sex with Men

The only son in his family, Maung Maung Oo was forced to marry when he was 24 years old. By then he had been carrying on a sexual relationship with a man for four years – which he continued even after his marriage.

Guantanamo Deaths in 2006 Won’t Go Away

A leading good-government group is asking the U.S. Justice Department to disclose details of its investigation into the deaths of three Guantanamo prisoners in 2006.

U.N. Expert Calls On U.S. To Halt CIA Targeted Killings

Targeted killings, including those using drones, are increasingly being applied in ways that violate international law, according to a report issued Wednesday by a United Nations expert on extrajudicial killings.

Protests Erupt After Israeli Flotilla Raid

Civil society protests are being staged in cities around the world following Israel's widely condemned raid on a flotilla of ships carrying humanitarian aid bound for Gaza.

Misregulation Aiding Plunder of Fish, Other Resources

The resources society derives from nature have been horribly mismanaged and this will lead to the children of the world's poorest people remaining in poverty, according to Paul Collier. The easiest of these resources to regulate is fish, but we have not even managed to get that right, he said.

Somali Torture Survivors Get Green Light to Sue in U.S.

The Supreme Court agreed Tuesday with a group of 19 torture survivors, joined by religious, human rights and support groups, that a former Somali prime minister is not protected from a lawsuit in the U.S. for alleged torture and human rights abuses.

Child Soldier Case to Kick Off Guantanamo Trials

Legal experts and civil libertarians are attacking the administration of President Barack Obama for resusiscitating what they regard as "deeply flawed" military commissions to try detainees at Guantanamo Bay - and their choice of a "child soldier" as the first defendant.

Indefinite Detention at Gitmo Criticised as “Legal Nihilism”

A new U.S. government report is recommending that 48 men currently detained at Guantanamo Bay should be held indefinitely without trial because "for many of the detainees, there are no witnesses who are available to testify in any proceeding against them".

AFRICA: Women Demand Answers and Action from ICC

With the first Review Conference of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC) under way in the Ugandan capital Kampala, women are crying out for justice for gender-based violence inflicted upon them during the civil conflict in the country’s north.

ITALY: Building a Sustainable Future With Straw and Wood

Pescomaggiore village, destroyed by the earthquake that hit the mountain region of L'Aquila in central Italy on Apr. 6, 2009, is now being rebuilt by its 40-odd inhabitants with straw and wood.

INDONESIA: Natural Fertiliser from Microbes Boosts Crop Yields

Ten years after an Indonesian agriculturist discovered microbes capable of producing natural fertilisers, farmers attest that they have boosted agricultural production.

U.S. Drone Strikes Draw Int’l Scrutiny

On the heels of reports that the Barack Obama administration altered a new manual on military commission rules to accommodate an illegal drone programme, a senior United Nations official is expected to call on the U.S. this week to stop Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) drone strikes against people suspected of belonging to al Qaeda.

Killings Could Boomerang on Israel

What exactly happened on the high seas off the Gaza-Israel coast remains in murky waters.