RIGHTS: Spain at Forefront of Fight Against Gender Violence

Spain is among the most progressive countries in terms of its policies and actions against gender violence, Francisca Sauquillo, a member of the European Parliament and head of the Movement for Peace, Disarmament and Freedom (MPDL), told IPS.

MIGRATION-LEBANON: Sending Money Home

Four months ago, Eric and his wife Karen left the Philippines for Lebanon to provide for a better life for their family. While driving buses, in the Philippines, Eric became certified as an electrician to improve his chances of finding employment abroad.

VENEZUELA: Wretchedly Poor on the Banks of Lake Maracaibo

"My father was a fisherman, and so was my grandfather. I fished for as long as I could. We live here because it is very beautiful, but we suffer great hardship," said 72-year-old Antonio Navarro, sitting in his six-by-eight-metre house on stilts in the Venezuelan village of Congo Mirador.

ENVIRONMENT-PERU: A (Toxic) River Runs Through It

The Mantaro river basin, one of the main water sources in Peru’s central Andes mountains, is a dump for toxic substances, according to an independent scientific study. Lead levels, for instance, are 180 times higher than those accepted by the World Health Organisation (WHO).

MIDEAST: Demolition Decimating Palestinian Village

Al Walajeh village was once a quiet but busy place. Just four kilometers from Bethlehem and 8.5 km from Jerusalem, its rolling hills filled with fruit trees, natural forests, and blooming vegetation made it a prime farming location. Easy access to large and consistent markets led its inhabitants to relative economic prosperity. Life was good.

RIGHTS-EU: Minorities Want Acceptance, Not ‘Tolerance’

"Tolerance? No. I want to talk about acceptance. I don't want to be ‘tolerated’, I want to be accepted as a disabled lesbian woman," said Lydia La Rivière-Zijdel, to a lengthy ovation at the event concluding the 2007 European Year of Equal Opportunities for All, in the Portuguese capital Tuesday.

CUBA: Sails of Popular Education Catch Winds of Socialist Change

The growing role of popular education in local experiences of social change is spurring debate about the need for more active participation by the people of Cuba in the social transformations that are inevitable if it is to remain a socialist country.

Q&A: “Decisive Action Must Emerge From Bali Climate Change Conference”

The United Nations' new Human Development Report will point to rich nations' responsibility in fighting climate change that threatens to usher in large-scale, irreversible changes in human development, says Kevin Watkins, lead author of the report.

MIGRATION-US: Mexicans Jittery About Raids, Deportations

Panic has taken hold of the six million Mexicans who live in the United States without residence permits, because of the ongoing crackdown on "illegal aliens", which has involved an increasing number of raids and deportations.

LATIN AMERICA: And Now For Some More Ambitious Anti-Poverty Goals

Sixty-eight percent of the time available for reaching the first Millennium Development Goal (MDG), which is to halve the proportion of people living in extreme poverty by 2015, has expired, and Latin America has gone 87 percent of the way towards achieving it. Countries that have advanced the most should now work on halving total poverty, ECLAC says.

SUDAN: Civilians Driven Into Camps, Then the Bush

Sudan's government is seeking to dismantle displaced person camps in Darfur that house thousands of people ahead of the arrival of a joint United Nations-African Union peacekeeping force, according to a Darfuri physician and human rights advocate honoured here this week by the Robert F. Kennedy (RFK) Memorial Centre for Human Rights.

ROMANIA: Murder Brings Fear to Italy

The murder of Italian Giovanna Reggiani by Romanian Nicolae Mailat has led the Italian government to pass a law allowing for expulsion of European Union (EU) citizens considered a threat to public security.

ENVIRONMENT-BRAZIL: Clean-up Efforts, a Drop in the Ocean

The contrasts are striking, and are plain to visitors from the moment they arrive in Rio. From the plane they can see the sparkling jewel of Guanabara bay, as they land on its largest island, but then they have to drive past the fetid waters of a sluggish channel and a number of "favelas" or shanty towns to get to the city centre and tourist areas.

RIGHTS-US: Economic Ladder Shaky for African Americans

Black families in the United States lag significantly behind whites in economic mobility over the past 35 years, says a report by the Pew Charitable Trusts released Tuesday.

PARAGUAY: State Accused of Violating Rights of Rural Poor

Civil society groups in Paraguay are hoping to persuade a United Nations expert committee to send international observers to investigate allegations of violations of the rights of peasant farmers and indigenous people in this country.

IBERO-AMERICA: Summit on Track to Protect Migrants’ Social Rights

The Multilateral Convention on Social Security, to be signed at the 17th Ibero-American Summit in Chile, is an important step toward improving the quality of life of poor people in this community of nations, according to its governments.

DOMINICAN REPUBLIC: Noel Leaves Poorest in Dire Straits

The bus carrying relief volunteers from the Colectiva de Mujeres y Salud stopped at the flooded Bao River, about three hours' drive from the capital, unable to cross.

Q&A: &#39Don&#39t Think of Migrants in Numbers Alone&#39&#39

The clash among cultures is not the inevitable destiny of our times, says Predrag Matvejevic. Intellectuals and politicians must both do their bit "to foster the concrete utopia of the alliance of civilisations."

SPAIN: Biofuels – Good for Business, Bad for the Poor, Say Activists

Making fuels from plants is strongly supported by the business community in Spain, but equally strongly criticised by environmental organisations because of its negative impact on food production.

MEXICO: Politicians Make Hay With Flood Aid

In the southeastern Mexican state of Tabasco, hundreds of thousands of people made homeless by unprecedented flooding are queuing for up to six hours to collect food and water, a large part of which has been donated by ordinary Mexicans, but which is being used by some authorities and politicians to their own advantage.

IBERO-AMERICA: Portugal Wants a Bigger Role

The Portuguese government has decided on a new strategy in Latin America: to cease being a wallflower at Ibero-American summits and take on a more active role, beyond the confines of Brazil, in relation to the Spanish-speaking countries.