Active Citizens

Street Power Takes On Gold

By Claudia Ciobanu
Street protests are snowballing in Romania against a Canadian-led gold mining project in the Rosia Montana area in the Apuseni Mountains. More than 20,000 people joined a protest march in Bucharest on Sunday, and thousands in other Romanian cities took to the streets.

Q&A: “The Last Great Exploration Is to Survive on Earth”

By Anna Shen
Newly arrived from London, Robert Swan is facing a promise he made to famed marine researcher and conservationist Jacques Cousteau decades ago.

Cuba’s Stray Dogs Have Their Champions

By Ivet González
The stray cat’s fur was burned and its eyes were hanging from its sockets when pensioner Neida González found it on a street in the Cuban capital. The cat, which she named Grenlito, now lives with her eight other pets.

Nationwide Protests Rage against Colombia’s Economic Policies

By Constanza Vieira and Helda Martínez
A strike declared nearly two weeks ago in Colombia by farmers and joined later by truck drivers, health workers, miners and students spread to include protests in the cities before mushrooming into a general strike Thursday, demanding changes in the government’s economic policies.

Civil Society Calls for Vote on Drilling in Ecuador’s Yasuní Park

By Ángela Meléndez
The Ecuadorean government’s decision to allow oil drilling in the Yasuní National Park, one of the most biodiverse areas of the planet, has caused alarm among environmentalists and indigenous people, who are calling for a referendum on the issue.

Water Dispute Pits Communities Against Brewing Giant

By Edgardo Ayala
Josefina Escamilla was in the Salvadoran capital to protest against UK brewing giant SABMiller, whose local subsidiary plans to drill a new water well on land alongside her community that, she says, will cause water scarcity for local residents.

Zimbabwe’s Electoral Commission Shaken by Vote

By Jeffrey Moyo
As a second commissioner from the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) resigns, local opposition parties and analysts are questioning the organisation’s credibility and President Robert Mugabe’s victory. 

Colombian Town Says ‘No’ to Gold Mine

By Constanza Vieira
People in a farming town in central Colombia voted overwhelmingly against global corporation AngloGold Ashanti’s La Colosa gold mine.

Spain’s New Squatters

By Inés Benítez
"You live there for free, don't you?" asked a woman as she passed by the Buenaventura "corrala", a community in a building in this southern Spanish city occupied since February by families evicted from their homes for falling behind in their mortgage payments due to unemployment.

Kenyan Spring Failing to Blossom

By Miriam Gathigah
Kenyan police are said to be investigating the rise of a group dubbed the March 4th Movement (M4M), which aims to make Kenya ungovernable by recruiting youths to take part in protests, similar to those that saw Egyptians overthrow their president. But politicians and analysts here say they do not foresee the movement capable of creating an East African Spring.

Mexico Ducks Commitment to Economic, Social and Cultural Rights

By Emilio Godoy
Civil society organisations are pressing the Mexican government to ratify the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, in force since May 2013.

Brazil’s “Other” Protesters

By Fabiana Frayssinet
The young people who have been protesting in Brazil over the last few weeks, who say they are apolitical and who have organised over the social networking sites, were not entirely pleased with Thursday’s demonstrations by the country’s trade unions and social and popular movements.

Brazilian Political Reform Falls Into Own Party Trap

By Fabiana Frayssinet
In response to the mass street protests in Brazil, President Dilma Rousseff proposed a raft of reforms of the political system which appear to be bogged down by red tape and interminable party negotiations - precisely the kind of thing the demonstrators are complaining about.

Faster Development Needed to Sustain Decade of Gains in Brazil

By Fabiana Frayssinet
After 10 years of social and economic gains thanks to successful employment and public investment policies and anti-poverty programmes, Brazil is facing the challenge of broadening and accelerating a model of development that includes, for instance, the young people protesting on the country’s streets.

Presidential Hopefuls in Chile Speak Out Against Wilderness Dam

By Marianela Jarroud
Diversifying the energy mix and the spectre of energy shortages in Chile are central issues in the campaign for the primary elections this Sunday Jun. 30, when presidential candidates will be nominated for the Nov. 17 elections.

Locals Risk Their Lives Fighting Mining in Mexico

By Emilio Godoy
"They brutally repressed us. The mining company buys off people’s consciences, it divides the community, but we’ll keep fighting it. Some people have had to flee the community,” Rosalinda Dionisio, a Zapoteca indigenous woman in the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca, told IPS, sobbing.

Police Brutality Fuels Protests in Brazil

By Fabíola Ortiz
Matheus Mendes Costa, a 21-year-old university student, spent 13 hours in a three-square-metre police station holding cell after he was arrested in this Brazilian city for allegedly assaulting police officers and destroying public property.

New Faces of Social Unrest in Spain

By Alexandra Di Stefano Pironti
Economy professor Arcadi Oliveres has become a popular face of the growing discontent in Spain because he calls a spade a spade.

Deteriorating Urban Transport Sparked the Protests

By Mario Osava
A group of young people touched a nerve in Brazil’s large cities, triggering an outpouring of urban outrage at the deterioration of transportation conditions and of the quality of life.

CENTRAL ASIA: South Asia Energy Project a Pipe Dream?

By EurasiaNet Correspondents
In early June, a newspaper in Pakistan announced the Asian Development Bank would withdraw from a much-anticipated energy transmission project that aims to connect Central and South Asia. The report stated that security fears in Afghanistan were prompting the ADB to drop its 40 percent interest in the project.

Britain to Compensate Tortured Kenyans

By AJ Correspondents
Britain has agreed to compensate Kenyans tortured during the Mau Mau uprising against colonial rule in the 1950s, Foreign Secretary William Hague said Thursday.
« Previous Page — Next Page »
w


eli alberts