JAPAN: Wall Street Protest Finds Strong Echoes

Inspired by the ongoing Occupy Wall Street demonstrations in the United States, thousands of Japanese youth and workers, dissatisfied with growing unemployment and harsh working conditions in the world’s third largest economy, have taken to the streets to demand stable jobs and government reforms.

Amazonas 2030: Indicators for the Climate Crisis

Official figures on the Colombian Amazon region are so lacking that the researchers who developed a new regional sustainability index specified that "it was difficult to obtain a large part of the data."

EcoMobility is Gaining Ground, Step by Step

Cities around the world are embracing a new concept, “EcoMobility” or sustainable mobility: transportation without private vehicles.

Ecobreves – MEXICO: Mexico City Aquifer Could Be Recharged

The aquifer that supplies water to Mexico City could be recharged in eight areas, according to a new university research study.

Ecobreves – LATIN AMERICA: Activists Call for Common Front to Defend Whales

More than 60 environmental organizations from throughout Latin America and the Caribbean have called on the region’s governments to use diplomatic action to stop Japan from beginning its annual whale hunt in the Southern Ocean this December.

Ecobreves – HONDURAS: Proposal to Compensate National Park for Water Supply

This November the Honduran Congress will study a bill aimed at authorizing payment for environmental services to La Tigra National Park, the main green area and source of water for Tegucigalpa.

MIDEAST: Virtually, There Are No Borders

Israeli entrepreneurs dream of a region without borders. Given their country's remoteness from its vicinity, that's a natural need. It's a dream also nurtured by their Palestinian counterparts, and a national necessity given their own encirclement by Israel. That's where high-tech comes into play...

Sri Lankan Rights Abuses Obstruct Trade Efforts with Canada

Despite the crossfire of Canadian accusations of human rights violations by Sri Lanka at the end of its civil war and Colombo's corresponding counter-claims, the economically battered South Asian country aims to bolster its trading relationship with Canada and increase foreign direct investment.

Q&A: Cooperatives a “Compelling Model of Economic Enterprise”

With 800 million members in over 100 countries, the cooperative sector is a globally important group of collective organisations. On Oct. 31, the United Nations (U.N.) will begin a year of recognising their importance by launching the International Year of Cooperatives (IYC) in New York.

PAKISTAN: Singing Against the Taliban

"In the last few years, I have sung more than a dozen songs against the Taliban," award-wining singer Khyal Muhammad tells IPS. "I got threatening messages on the mobile phone. But I will continue to sing because it gives me strength."

MEXICO: Wixaritari Indians Fight Mining in Sacred Desert Site

Some 200 Wixáritari or Huichol men, women and children travelled 20 hours from western Mexico to the capital to defend their sacred ceremonial sites from silver mining.

LATIN AMERICA: Communities Should Go to Court Over Water

Local communities in Latin America should go to court more often to fight for access to drinking water, regarded as a universal right, and combine legal action with social protests and political lobbying, experts say.

U.S.: As It Renews, Oakland Occupation Honours Injured Protester

Several dozen tents popped back up Thursday afternoon at Oakland's Oscar Grant Plaza as people played music and shared hugs. But as darkness fell, a sombre mood overtook the nearby corner of 14th Street and Broadway, where friends and supporters of Scott Olsen lit candles and spoke quietly.

U.S.: Who is the 99 Percent? – Part 1

Barely a month after the first group of protesters set up its encampment in Zuccotti Park in New York City, the phrase "We are the 99 percent" has already become legendary.

DR CONGO: Women Candidates Needed

Women make up just 12 percent of the roughly 18,000 candidates who will stand for election to parliament in the Democratic Republic of Congo's Nov. 28 elections.

PERU: In Prison, a Little Health Care Goes a Long Way

"I caught tuberculosis, but I'm lucky because it's been cured," says Hernán Arévalo from his bed in the new hospital at the Peruvian prison of Lurigancho, one of the most crowded and dangerous in Latin America. "Before, whoever came in here was unlikely to get out alive."

LIBYA: After Gaddafi, Unease Rules

"The war is over and Gaddafi already buried. What else could we possibly ask for?" says Adnan Abdulrafiq at his busy street restaurant in Omar Mukhtar street in downtown Tripoli. But troubles may not have ended with the war.

TURKEY: Media Bares Its Anti-Kurdish Bias

Following the attacks by Kurdish rebels against the Turkish military last week, the Turkish press has openly struck a nationalist and militaristic tone.

LATIN AMERICA: Public Media Expanding

The public media are growing in Latin America, with a new focus that puts an emphasis on independence from the state and the backlash from the private media, said journalists, academics and officials meeting in the Paraguayan capital.

KENYA: “Hold Your Heart” Delayed Justice for Missing Insurgency Victims

Three years after her husband’s disappearance, Phyllis Chamnai Kipkeyo from Mount Elgon, Kenya cannot stop thinking about him. She does not know if he is dead or alive. All she knows is that he was one of the over 300 people said to have disappeared during an insurgency in the region between 2006 and 2008.

FILM: Political Prisoners Are Burma’s Unsung Heroes

In a move that highlighted its sub-par human rights record, the government of Burma announced Oct. 11 that it would release 6,359 prisoners, but how many of these will be drawn from the country's estimated 500 to over 2,000 political prisoners remains uncertain.