Bringing People “Back to Life” in Uganda’s Slums

As soon as Sanyu Nagia sits down outside Barbara Namirimu’s home, she asks to see her patient’s bag of medicine. It is too heavy for the ill Namirimu to carry, so her mother, Efrance Namakula, brings it out and hands it over.

Presidential Showdown Brings Egypt to the Brink

A week after Egypt's presidential runoff between the Muslim Brotherhood's Mohamed Morsi and Mubarak-era premier Ahmed Shafiq, the military's preferred candidate, both men continue to claim victory amid tit-for-tat allegations of electoral fraud.

Climate-Smart Agriculture to Reduce Vulnerability*

Agroforestry is gaining ground as a tool for climate change adaptation and mitigation in Central America, a region where global warming could generate losses equivalent to 19 percent of gross domestic product.

Weak Rio+20 Agreement Anticipates New Noah’s Ark

The downpour that fell Friday in this Brazilian city was nature’s warning to the heads of state meeting at the Rio+20 summit. The generation of Noe (Noah), an environmentalist’s son who will be born a month from now, will have to save biodiversity that is more complex than that of his Biblical namesake.

Climate Refugees – Today’s New Reality*

The continued exodus of Somalis to Kenya and Ethiopia has fuelled the debate on a new issue of global concern: climate refugees, driven from their homes and across borders by extreme weather events.

RIO+20: Promised Green Economy Was a Fake, Say Activists

When the Rio+20 summit on sustainable development ended Friday, there were winners and losers – mostly losers.

Ethical Banks Weather Crisis in Spain

Where do banks invest their depositors' money? Whose interests do they serve, and what criteria do they apply? Increasing numbers of dissatisfied customers want to know what happens to their money, and are opting for alternative financial services which are growing in spite of the economic crisis choking Spain.

Biodiesel Brings Cleaner Air

For the past three months, a transport group in the Philippines has been making use of biodiesel processed from used cooking oil for their jeepneys.

‘It Should be Named Planet Ocean, Not Planet Earth’

Oceans, seas and coasts provide over 200 million jobs globally, while 4.3 billion people get 15 percent of their intake of animal protein from the seas. Travel and tourism, ports and energy production use oceans and seas to create jobs and economic and social benefits for millions of people.

Mexican and U.S. Activists Join Forces Against Arms Smuggling

Another Caravan for Peace is being organised in Mexico, but this time it will travel through the United States and call for action against weapons smuggling, as part of a bi-national initiative aimed at attracting the attention of President Barack Obama.

Q&A: Involvement of Local Communities Key to Climate Change Adaptation

To preserve the environment and adapt to climate change, alliances must be made with communities of local people with a view to educating, rather than dictating to them. This is the maxim upheld by Ángel Quirós, a marine biologist and head of Los Caimanes National Park, a protected area that is economically and environmentally important for Cuba and the Caribbean.

Earth Summits Fail Biodiversity in India

Heads of state and governments are meeting in Rio de Janeiro this week to decide how to renew their pledges made during the first Earth Summit held in Rio in 1992.

Notorious Immigrant Detention Centre Closed in Spain

The closure of one of Spain’s eight immigration detention centres on Wednesday was celebrated by human rights groups, which for years have denounced the prison-like conditions in the centres.

No Rest for Cyber Activists

One and a half years since the beginning of the Arab Spring, activists who guided their fellow citizens through the relatively unchartered terrain of social media activism feel their fight for human rights, democracy and transparency is only just beginning.

What is Stopping the Algerian Spring?

The on-going hunger strike of nine Algerian court clerks, coupled with the government’s indifference to their demands for an independent labour union, have stirred debate about Algeria’s role in the Arab Spring, which many see as an incomplete attempt to overturn a deeply flawed political and economic system.

RIO+20: Reforestation Pledges Reach Only 12 Percent of Target

The world's countries have committed themselves so far to restoring just 18 million hectares of forests by 2020, barely 12 percent of the goal of 150 million hectares agreed by the Bonn Challenge in 2011.

RIO+20 Doubts over Impact of Sustainable Development Dialogues

Announced as an innovative way to encourage the participation of Internet users and the public in general in the debates at Rio+20, the proposal for Sustainable Development Dialogues also raised doubts about the impact its recommendations would have.

After the Curtain Call, a Crackdown Begins

As the attention of the world faded away from Azerbaijan after the recent Eurovision song contest, police began targeting some young activists and a journalist involved in protests here last month.

‘Armed Youth’ to Rock Rio

Environmental and community activists from Taiwan will enliven the United Nations Sustainable Development Conference, dubbed Rio+20, and the parallel People’s Summit, with one of the island’s most prominent social protest music groups, the Village Armed Youth Band.

EUROPE: Rights Groups Call for Effective Investigations of Crimes Against Roma

Rights groups have called on governments in Central and Eastern Europe to publicly condemn violence against Roma, as a family was gunned down in Slovakia in the latest example of what monitors say is a rising tide of violence against Europe’s largest ethnic minority. [caption id="attachment_110111" align="alignright" width="375"]

Where Journalism Is a Battlefront

“It does not matter if we ever find out who killed Saleem; whoever it was has destroyed my family,” says Anita Shahzad, Saleem Shahzad’s 36-year-old widow and mother of three. “It won’t bring him back,” she tells IPS.