Negotiators Lack Focus at Arms Treaty Talks, Observers Warn

More than halfway through four-week negotiations for a binding treaty to regulate the global weapons trade, observers are warning that the talks are a week behind schedule.

Anti-Terror Laws Stalk Turkish Students

Ahmet Saymadi slumps into a cafe, gives a limp handshake to some friends, and then stops at a computer to do some work. When he finally pauses for a tea break, he pushes a CD across the table, which contains the names of all 768 student activists currently imprisoned in Turkey’s jails.

Poverty Drives Child Labour

In an informal settlement of 10,000 people on the outskirts of Papua New Guinea’s capital, Port Moresby, Tembari Children’s Care – a new grassroots initiative – is providing protection, food and education to orphans and abandoned children who would otherwise join the high numbers of child labourers in this Melanesian country.

A Grim Search for the Missing

A bloody civil war was reaching its climax but this Tamil family, who had already experienced the conflict intimately, had one last decision to make that would prove to be the hardest one of all.

Ithaca Ecovillage Forges a Path to Sustainable Living

Ecovillage at Ithaca (EVI), located in the beautiful Finger Lakes region of upstate New York, is an intentional community of 160 people striving for greater sustainability, a better quality of life, and perhaps even a new model for urban planners the world over.

Pacific Coastal Fisheries in Dire Need of Protection

Coastal fisheries in Papua New Guinea, used primarily by local subsistence fisher folk, will face increasing pressure from climate change, compounding the twin problems of population growth and overfishing.

Brotherhood Wins, Military Prevails

The first major confrontation between Egypt's new Islamist president and its quasi-ruling military council – fought over the issue of legislative authority – appears to have been won by the latter.

Conservationists Urge Ban on Trade of Turtle Eggs

Age-old customs and traditions that allow licenced traders to collect and sell marine turtle eggs to locals and tourists alike are driving the creatures to extinction, Malaysian conservationists charge.

Local Control Revives Depleted Fisheries

It takes a village to protect a reef and sustain a local fishery, more than two decades of experience now shows.

Brazil Launches Campaign to Decriminalise Drug Use

A host of academic, legal, health, political and social figures are joining together to back a campaign to decriminalise drug use in Brazil, as tens of thousands of consumers uninvolved in the drug trade are currently jailed.

Protests Rising Within China

Tens of thousands of residents in a Chinese city took to the streets last week to protest, forcing the government to scrap plans to build a copper plant. The incident is the latest in a rising number of localised protests as expression of public anger aimed at over-ambitious or corrupt officials in China over-boils.

RFK Award Spotlights Struggle for Farmworkers’ Rights

New York State legislators up in Albany are likely to be seeing a lot of Librada Paz in the near future.

Locals Urge Fresh Negotiations on Padma Bridge Funding

Amidst continuing controversy over the World Bank’s recent decision to cancel a 1.2 billion-dollar loan to Bangladesh to assist in the construction of the Padma Bridge – which would have been the country’s largest ever development project, worth 2.9 billion dollars – most locals have expressed deep concern about the impact of such a move on one of the world’s least developed countries.

Brazilian Environmental Activists Killed in Shadow of Rio+20

Far from the plush surroundings which hosted Rio+20, the most ambitious global conference on the environment of the past two decades, events in a fishing village in the state of Rio de Janeiro show the cost of fighting environmental crime can be as high as life itself.

‘Reforms’ Legacy Rocks Romania Again

Romanian President Traian Basescu is close to being impeached after the Parliament suspended him Friday. The political crisis, however, distracts from citizens’ calls for a more responsive political class and a halt to declining standards of living.

PERU: Anti-Mining Protesters Shot Amid Climate of Fear

In under two days, five demonstrators were gunned down by security forces in the northern Peruvian highlands region of Cajamarca, where a state of emergency has been declared.

Israel Divestment Campaigns Gain Momentum in U.S.

A resolution at the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA) to divest from three corporations which provide equipment used to maintain Israel's occupation of Palestinian lands failed by a mere two votes on Thursday.

Concerns over Poll Preparations in Angola

Preparations for Angola’s second peacetime polls scheduled for August are being overshadowed by allegations of electoral fraud, state media bias and growing concerns about a violent crackdown on activists and protestors.

FILM: Murder and Threats Can’t Stop Fight for Gay Rights in Uganda

In Uganda, like in many sub-Saharan African countries, same-sex relationships are illegal and punishable by incarceration in prison for up to 14 years, legislation that is supported by a majority of Ugandans and influenced by the lobbying efforts of U.S. evangelical churches.

Youth-Friendly Apps Visualise Carbon Footprint

Following what many regard as a disappointment at the recent Rio+20 Earth Summit, the World Bank and several groups have begun implementing new initiatives to "personalise" climate change, in hopes of revitalising the issue among the younger generation.

U.S. Sees Greatest Reduction in CO2 Emissions

According to a recent report by the International Energy Agency, the U.S. has seen the greatest reduction in carbon dioxide pollution within the past six years in comparison to any other country, even as global carbon dioxide pollution has reached record highs.