CLIMATE-GERMANY: Planting the Forest of the Future

Exotic tree seedlings grow next to native species in the southeastern German village of Laufen, at a site where researchers are experimenting with ways to restore forests lost to the effects of global warming.

ROMANIA: Starting Early on Human Rights With School Textbook

A textbook on human rights activism, being introduced in Romanian schools this year, steers away from preaching and uses interviews with global and local rights activists to suggest how young people may get involved.

Q&A: ”You Could Use a Stronger European Voice on Human Rights”

Major changes are underway in the European Union (EU). For the first time in its history, the 27-country bloc will have a foreign minister once Catherine Ashton, a British Labour politician, receives parliamentary approval for her appointment later this month. She has already taken the first steps towards assembling a diplomatic service as foreseen by the EU's Lisbon treaty.

CLIMATE CHANGE: European Firms See Windfall in Renewable Energy

European governments failed to help along an international treaty to stop global warming at the United Nations climate change summit in December, but their engineering and power industries see business opportunities in renewable energy sources and their smart management.

ENERGY-PORTUGAL: Racing for Renewables

Just a decade ago, criticism rained down on sunny, windy Portugal for not making the most of nature's gifts to develop renewable energy sources. Now all signs indicate that it did not fall on deaf ears, as the country has become a leader in the field.

MIDEAST: Pro-Israel Lobbies Work on Europe

Defenders of Israel’s aggressive stance have for many years been recognised as a powerful force shaping United States foreign policy. A less well-known fact is that the pro-Israel lobby has been making a concerted effort to strengthen its presence in Europe.

BALKANS: Moderate Patriarch Sets New Course for Serb Church

The enthronement of a moderate as patriarch of the influential Serbian Orthodox Church (SPC) has raised hopes for the planned integration of the country with the European Union (EU) and for Serbs coming to terms with the bloody Balkans wars of the 1990s.

MIGRATION: Fortress Europe Starts With Greece

When Michalis Chrisohoidis, Greek minister of citizens' protection announced that FRONTEX, the European Agency for Border Control and Protection, would double its representation in this country in spring, it was clear that Greece is being charged with special responsibilities to apprehend and repatriate illegal migrants into Europe.

BIODIVERSITY: EU Farmers Face Genetic Contamination of Seeds

Biodiversity, already decaying fast as a result of climate change and intensive farming, is under further threat by genetic modification (GM) of seeds, says a leading German ecological activist.

FRANCE: Burqa Ban Keeps Immigration Issue Alive

With the French regional elections coming up in March and a debate on national identity raging, the burqa polemic is keeping the immigration and "values" issue alive here.

EUROPE: Privatised Services Back in Public Hands

After the wave of de-privatisation of water services facilities that started across the world two years ago, municipalities in Europe are now buying back the electricity utilities they sold to private investors in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

ECONOMY-EUROPE: Czechs Bank on Cooperatives for Revival

The Czech Republic’s strong heritage of cooperative movements, dating from the interwar period, is serving as inspiration for new initiatives in the post-communist era and acting as "harbingers of a new global economic system".

RECESSION AND RECOVERY: Diamonds Are for the Poor – Part 3

Diamonds haven't been among the first concerns at the World Social Forum these last 10 years. But through the recession and the still tottering recovery, a new sparkle in that business is pointing the way to a brighter world that is also better in a WSF sort of way.

RECESSION AND RECOVERY: The Lucky Are Unemployed – Part 1

The agreed, if dubious, solution to the financial crisis was to get people and governments - in the richer countries - to borrow more in order to spend more. What is not in doubt is the growing numbers of people who will be able to neither borrow nor spend.

HAITI: ‘Adoption Not the Best Choice for Quake Orphans’

Thirty-three children from Haiti arrived in France to adoptive parents Friday evening, as charities and international organisations differed on whether adoptions should be speeded up or halted while the search for relatives continues.

RIGHTS: Expulsions From EU Rise Sharply

The number of asylum-seekers and other migrants expelled from the European Union in joint operations between its governments has grown three times in as many years, IPS has learned.

MEDIA: Slovakia Tightens the Gag

Fears are growing for media freedom in Slovakia amid warnings that the country's public television station has become a propaganda tool for the government ahead of elections this year.

DEVELOPMENT: Hunger Feeds More Hunger

German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche was way off the mark when he wrote the famous line "what does not destroy me, makes me stronger" - at least when it comes to hunger.

CLIMATE CHANGE: Polluters Dragging EU Back

Barely a month after world leaders gathering in Copenhagen reached a weak accord on climate change, the European Union's top polluters are fighting a fresh battle to dissuade policy-makers from taking more robust action.

LABOUR-ICELAND: Centre Gives Leg Up to Listless Youth

For young Icelanders at a loose end the Fjolsmidjan (multi-workshop) can prove to be a turning point.

BALKANS: Seized Cars, Property Say Crime Does Not Pay

A rare fleet of 20 luxury cars and snazzy jeeps has remained parked in front of the heavily guarded special court in the capital for days now.