CLIMATE CHANGE: Negawatts and Smart Grids

Electricity is indispensable to modern life, but its generation is responsible for 40 percent of the carbon dioxide emissions that cause global warming and climate change.

ECONOMY: Neo-liberalism Preys on Nordic Welfare Systems

Nordic welfare state systems, often held up as model in the developed world, are crumbling under the assault of neo-liberal economic policies, say economic experts.

BALKANS: Apologising to Sterilised Roma Women – Slovakia’s Turn

Rights activists are hoping a landmark announcement by the Czech government regretting forced sterilisation of Roma women in the past will push politicians in neighbouring Slovakia to follow suit.

ROMANIA: Business Crowds Out Bucharest Life

Competing with the destruction caused by former Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu’s ‘systematisation’ plans might be hard. But an official report says that "the aggression on Bucharest’s architectural heritage, documented since 1989, exceeds Ceausescu’s acts.’’

RIGHTS-FRANCE: Domestic Violence – Everybody’s Business

Several people are gathered outside a window, staring wide-eyed at a scene within. They watch as a man brutally beats a woman, pounding her face with his fists, kicking her. No one says anything, until an onlooker screams agonisingly: "stop".

LITERATURE/WOMEN: “When a Woman Wins, It is Still a Story”

The Nobel Prize in Literature has been awarded 102 times to 106 Nobel laureates between 1901 and 2009. Only 10 of those winners were women. Meanwhile, the Man Booker Prize has been awarded to 15 women in 40 years.

RELIGION-BALKANS: Death of Patriarch Brings Controversies Into Spotlight

It is not often that anything in Serbia can bring several hundred thousand people together, but that is exactly what happened Thursday when the Patriarch Pavle, head of the Serbian Orthodox Church (SPC), was buried in a monastery graveyard near Belgrade.

KOSOVO: Ten Years On, Forensics Continues to ID Missing

Pictures of missing people have been hanging for years next to the gate to the fence surrounding Kosovo’s parliament. Some of them have been there for so long that the features of the faces can hardly be seen anymore - a good example of how slow and painful the process of discovering the fate of the missing is.

SLOVAKIA: Velvet Touch Brings Communists Back

As Slovaks mark the 20th anniversary of the fall of communism this week, former dissidents have lashed out at top political figures, including the prime minister, who they say are trying to paint the totalitarian regime of old in a positive light.

RIGHTS: Tick the Right Box If You Feel French

The stereotypical image of a French person is of someone wearing a beret and carrying a baguette under his arm. But can one wear a burqa and also be French? Can one prefer pitta bread to baguettes and still be French?

FINANCE: Icelanders Question IMF Loan

After eight months of waiting, Iceland is finally back on the agenda of the IMF. The second instalment of the IMF loan was agreed at the end of last month and has now been transferred to Iceland.

ENERGY-DENMARK: Samso Island, Beyond Fantasy

On the Danish island of Samsø, a model of energy self-sufficiency, even cow's milk helps reduce emissions of climate changing gases.

GENDER: “Truly Exciting If the U.S. Could Ratify CEDAW” – Part 2

CEDAW or the U.N. Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Violence Against Women (CEDAW) was adopted by the U.N. General Assembly in 1979.

GENDER: Laws, Budgets and Pigeonholes – Part 1

The fight for women's rights came about hand in hand with the struggle for democracy, civil rights and national liberation in different countries and periods, says Inés Alberdi, executive director of UNIFEM.

SWEDEN: ‘Freemovers’ Get Trapped

After a spell of sleeping rough at the railway station, Farid has a roof over his head, by way of a small room he shares with five other students.

BALKANS: War Crime Victims Stretch Wait for Justice

The postponement of the trial in the genocide cases in the 1992-95 Bosnia war is further indication that victims of war crimes may never get justice.

ENERGY-SPAIN: Windfall for the Grid

Wind energy notched up a new record in Spain on Sunday, when it generated 53 percent of total electricity demand nationwide for part of the day, according to official figures announced Monday.

ENVIRONMENT-SPAIN: Improving Garbage Management

The 60,000 tonnes of rubbish collected daily in Spain, equivalent to 1.3 kilos per person, is being managed by more green-friendly methods of recovery and treatment.

EASTERN EUROPE: Loans Make the Middle Class Poor

Low-income Eastern Europeans contracting easy consumer loans in the mid- 2000s are now falling below poverty lines.

DEVELOPMENT: More Food May Not Mean Less Hunger

Achieving ambitious Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) production targets to meet growing world demands will not suffice to feed the world, and focusing too much on churning out crops may even be damaging, experts warn.

BALKANS: Museum Speaks of Roma History, and Misery

The Balkans gets its first museum on the Roma, to tell a story about one of the most underprivileged ethnic groups in the region.