Ecobreves – HONDURAS: Coastal Community Generates Renewable Energy

The residents of the community of Plan Grande, on the Atlantic coast of Honduras, have built an 11-kilowatt mini hydroelectric dam which they now manage through a use and consumption agreement.

Ecobreves – VENEZUELA: Beaches Disappearing Due to Hotel Construction

El Yaque, one of the largest beaches on the south coast of Venezuela’s Margarita Island, is no longer able to replace the sand carried off by the sea because hotels and other buildings have cut off the circulation of the air currents that used to feed them, environmental activists warn.

SRI LANKA: Peace Brings Little for the War-Disabled

There are times when Thiyagarajah Santhirakumaran, 35, wishes that he had died in Sri Lanka’s civil war. There is peace now, but with both his legs blown off by a shell he has little to look forward to except a life of dependency.

U.S.: Foreign Aid Spared Drastic Cuts for 2012

Despite the budget cutting and anti-U.N. frenzy that seized Republican lawmakers over the past year, U.S. foreign aid and support for multilateral institutions emerged in somewhat better shape than many observers had expected.

BURMA: Kachin Refugees Get UN Relief, Finally

Six months after fighting erupted between Burmese troops and ethnic Kachin separatists, international relief is finally trickling in for over 30,000 people who fled their homes near the snow-capped mountains north of the country.

EU-India Deal Could Spell Disaster

As the Eighth Ministerial meeting of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) kicked off in Geneva this week, a group of NGOs exposed the devastating potential of a free trade agreement currently being negotiated between the European Union and India. If passed, they say the deal would make a mockery of all WTO rules and regulations.

Chinese Village Besieged After Protests

A standoff between villagers and police is continuing in southern China, where police have sealed off the village of Wukan in an attempt to quell an uprising, witnesses say.

Syrian Troops ‘Ordered to Shoot to Kill’

More than 70 Syrian army commanders and officials have been named by former soldiers as having ordered attacks on unarmed protesters in that country, says the U.S.-based Human Rights Watch.

CLIMATE CHANGE: ‘High Glaciers Safe From Warming’

Global warming will melt far less of the glaciers of Central Asia than of those in other mountain ranges, shielding the people who depend on them for water from the effects of climate change for several decades at least, scientists say.

MIDEAST: Fighting Settlers’ Impunity and Immunity

The outer stone walls of the unused 12th century Ayyubid mosque in the Israeli centre of the city carried the black scars of attempted arson and hatred. "Price tag", the signature read.

DEATH PENALTY: Urgent Appeal for Fair Trials

Senior representatives of Amnesty International and the Anti-Death Penalty Asia Network have urged the Taiwan government to "uphold fairness and justice" in its judicial system and resume a broken moratorium on use of the death penalty.

U.S.: Federal Court Grants Legal Victory to Transgender People

When Vandy Beth Glenn, a transgender woman formerly known as Mr. Glenn Morrison, told her supervisors at the Georgia state legislature where she served as a legislative editor that she would start coming to work dressed as a woman, she was fired.

In Unprecedented Move, Canada Withdraws from Kyoto Protocol

Barely 24 hours after it signed a new global climate change agreement in Durban, South Africa, Canada became on Monday the first country to formally withdraw from the Kyoto Protocol, the only legally binding treaty to reduce emissions causing climate change.

MEXICO: No Protection for Activists

Gabriel Echeverría de Jesús, 20, and Jorge Alexis Herrera, 21, paid a high price for taking part in student protests in the southern Mexican state of Guerrero: they were killed when police tried to break up their roadblock.

Soviet-Armed Iraq Switches Allegiance to U.S. Weapons Systems

As the United States withdraws the last of its 50,000 troops after a nearly nine-year military occupation of Iraq, visiting Iraqi President Nuri al-Maliki had one final request: billions of dollars worth of U.S. weapons for his ragtag armed forces.

BALKANS: Kosovo Serbs Turn to Russia for Protection

On Dec. 1, the government in Moscow turned down a petition for Russian statehood by some 22,000 Kosovo Serbs who argue that their lives as ethnic minorities in Kosovo have become "unbearable".

West Papuan Conflict Begs Political Solution

The Indonesian government’s offer of development for West Papua, following the crackdown by security forces on a pro-independence meeting in Jayapura in October, is unlikely to succeed in the absence of political dialogue and calls for self-determination are expected to continue.

U.S.: Former Top Aide Offers Insight on Mideast and Iran

In his first public address since departing from the White House, Dennis Ross, former top Middle East aide to U.S. President Barack Obama, called for increased sanctions on Iran, a careful approach to new Arab regimes and a low-key approach to Israeli-Palestinian negotiations.

RIGHTS: West Turns Blind Eye to Torture in Uzbekistan

Despite its formal adoption of due-process reforms in 2008, the government of Uzbekistan under President Islam Karimov continues to practice torture routinely, and the situation may be worsening, according to a major new report released here and in Berlin Tuesday.

PERU: Humala Surrounds Himself with Uniforms

Peruvian President Ollanta Humala is taking an increasingly hard-line stance against protests, and is losing important allies less than five months into his term.

INDIA: Education and Employment Bring Abuse

Increased education and employment opportunities for women in Kashmir might have brought monetary independence and a degree of empowerment but it also has women ensnared in a vicious trap of domestic violence.