ENVIRONMENT: Icelandic Fishing Quotas Turn a Blind Eye to Industry Practices

In Iceland, strict quotas on the fishing industry result in unnecessary waste and distort data, say critics of the system.

To Execute or Not, an Unfair Question

New polls in the Czech Republic showing high and growing support for the death penalty have sparked debate on the continuing use of surveys to back the retention of capital punishment.

MIGRATION: Swiss Vote In an ‘Illegal Law’

Just a year after banning the construction of minarets, Swiss voters have approved a right-wing initiative demanding the automatic expulsion of criminal foreigners. The initiative violates international law.

Sharks Make It Through the Net, Bluefin Tuna Don’t

Governments have moved to ban the commercial fishing of at least two species of endangered sharks, but the Atlantic bluefin tuna received little protection at the end of a ten-day intergovernmental meeting here.

EU: Extraditions Process Abuses Suspects

Robert Hörchner can only sleep for two hours at night before the sweating starts. His wife Annelies wakes up frequently, too; each time she hears a noise outside she opens the curtains, expecting to see police at the front door. The couple are traumatised because Robert spent ten months locked up in a filthy Polish cell. He has been accused of holding the lease to a property where cannabis was grown but insists that he is innocent.

ECONOMY: East Timor Extends a Hand to Troubled Portugal

With the announcement that his country is ready to buy Portuguese debt, the president of East Timor, José Ramos-Horta, set a precedent in international economic relations that was universally praised in political and financial circles in this southern European country.

KYRGYZSTAN: Fast Melting Glaciers Threaten Biodiversity

Kyrgyzstan's glaciers are receding at what scientists say is an alarming rate, fuelled by global warming. And while experts warn of a subsequent catastrophe for energy and water security for Kyrgyzstan and neighbour states downstream reliant on its water flows, devastation to local ecosystems and the effects on plant and wildlife could be just as severe.

BALKANS: Rape Victims Fight a Mostly Losing Battle

It takes little to bring out the scars that many women who were raped in Bosnia still carry. Rumours, later shown to be unfounded, that Angelina Jolie would star in a film to be shot in Sarajevo on the war-time love between a Serb man and a Bosniak Muslim girl he raped, had women's groups lodging strong protests.

KOSOVO: Dragging Corruption Into the Net

Kosovo youths looking to address issues treated as taboo by mainstream media are taking increasingly to online activism. The new platform is being used particularly to fight high-level corruption.

MIDEAST: Prisoner Speaks Out From Israeli Jail

Samer Hamdan*, a 26-year-old Palestinian prisoner, recalls being beaten until he bled. Seeing other prisoners covered in blood and screaming is the norm in the Israeli prison, he says.

Portugal’s Economy Headed Down a Dead-End Street?

"They are a heartache," admitted Portugal's Prime Minister José Sócrates about the draconian economic measures his government approved in a bid -- with dubious effectiveness -- to calm the financial markets and recover lost credibility.

EUROPE: For Women, East Is Backward East

Women's rights organisations in Eastern Europe say they are struggling to overcome centuries-old gender stereotypes.

HUNGARY: ‘Former Reds’ Behind Red Mud

As the Hungarian government continues its efforts to limit the consequences of a tragic toxic leak last week, it has also used the opportunity to attack a supposed former communist-turned capitalist oligarchy that allegedly runs the country's economy.

EUROPE: Poor Safeguards Against Further Spills

The red sludge spill at the Ajka alumina plant in Hungary has been called one of the three worst environmental disasters in Europe in the last 20-30 years. But environmentalists warn other waste depositing sites in Central and Eastern Europe are prone to similar accidents.

EUROPE: Woods Are Lovely, Dark and Disappearing

Surprising how dark it is here, even on a clear summer day. Centuries-old trees, some as high as a 15-floor house, allow only a little light to sift down to earth. Fallen trunks bar the muddy paths, and no less than 28 species of mosquitoes can't wait to suck your blood.

HUNGARY: Mud Leaves More Than a Mark

"There's no way we can stay. It smells like cholera," says pensioner Imre Fabian as he shovels the red toxic mud from his kitchen floor. The flood of toxic waste that hit people in Devecser is there to stay, and locals are beginning to accept that their life as they knew it is over.

EUROPE: Yugoslavia Back on Track

For a while it looked like the start of a ride in a time machine. Serbian engineers, their caps bearing the emblems of the defunct Yugoslav Railways, cheered on the first train of the new Slovenian-Croatian-Serbian railway.

CENTRAL ASIA: Remittances on the Rise

Financial remittances to the Central Asian Republics by millions of both undocumented and legal migrants working in Russia have increased substantially, labour experts say.

EUROPE: Bosnia Progresses to a New Mess

Elections in Bosnia and Herzegovina last Sunday have passed without changing much. Bosnian voters had a difficult political scene to tackle.

Wolf Back at Swiss Doors

Wolves have resettled in Switzerland. Their appetite for sheep and even cattle has sparked fierce debates in the mountain republic. Nature conservation organisations demand the implementation of herd-protection measures. However, alp farmers are sceptical about their practicability and costs.

Culinary Traditions Exhausting Spain’s Fisheries

"We have little boquerón (a type of anchovy), little jurel (scad), little salmon," recites a server at a restaurant on the coast in Málaga, the southern Spanish city known for its "small fried fish."