RIGHTS-BOLIVIA: Indigenous People March On Constituent Assembly

Indigenous people are marching for their right to autonomy, heading from the lowland city of Santa Cruz de la Sierra in central Bolivia to the constitutional and judicial capital, Sucre, where the country's Constituent Assembly is meeting.

CLIMATE CHANGE: Pop Stars Belt Out Global Wake-Up Call

One person may not be able to save the world, but former U.S. Vice President Al Gore won't give up his quest to do so without a fight - make that a green revolution.

RIGHTS-ARGENTINA: Priest Faces Judgement Day

The Argentine justice system is prosecuting Christian von Wernich, a Catholic priest, for "aberrant, atrocious and massive" crimes. He exemplifies the collaboration of part of the Catholic Church with state terrorism during the military dictatorship that was in power from 1976 to 1983.

RIGHTS-CUBA: Dissident Group Sees No Improvement

The temporary retirement of President Fidel Castro on Jul. 31, 2006 has resulted in no change in "the civil, political, economic and certain cultural rights situation," which continues to be "unfavourable," a dissident human rights group said on Thursday.

MERCOSUR-VENEZUELA: Integration by Ultimatum

Venezuela has lost patience with delays in Paraguay and Brazil's congressional ratifications of its entry into the Southern Common Market (Mercosur), while it is being urged to speed up its adoption of the common external tariff and other bloc regulations.

ENVIRONMENT-US: Growing Oases in the Sky

An industrial park seems an unlikely location to find a native plant garden.

RIGHTS-BRAZIL: Freeing Modern-Day Slaves

A young man with burns to his hands and feet which have become evil-smelling open wounds arrives, assisted by a co-worker. He suffered an electric shock on the hacienda (estate) where he works, when a metal rod he was carrying made contact with a high-tension cable.

CUBA: Women Combating Shortage of Decent Housing

Juana Hilda Naranjo no longer worries when it rains. For the last three years she has been living in a modern apartment out of reach of the water and wind, thanks to the efforts of the Taller de Transformación (Transformation Workshop) in the poor, predominantly black Havana neighbourhood of Pogolotti.

SOUTH AFRICA: "You Cannot Keep People Away From Settling in Cities"

Population issues are in the spotlight at present with the recent release of the United Nations Population Fund's annual report - and World Population Day, to be commemorated Jul. 11.

CULTURE-CHINA: Shanghaied Into Modernity

When one of China’s top leaders in charge of the country’s architectural landscape recently berated Chinese cities for their breathless rush towards modernity, none deserved the reprimand more than Shanghai.

POPULATION: World&#39s Poor Abandon Rural Past for Big Cities

A dramatic population explosion in the world's urban centres will be the single largest influence on development in the 21st century, the U.N. Population Fund (UNFPA) says in a new report released Wednesday.

DOMINICAN REPUBLIC: Child Labour Seen as Normal

The three-wheeled cart piled high with scrap metal slowly makes its way down one of the main avenues in the capital of the Dominican Republic. It is pedalled by smiling 12-year-old Julio, who with his little brother Miguel goes out every day to scour the city’s outlying neighbourhoods in search of recyclable waste, which they sell to help support their family.

AFGHANISTAN: Afghans Blast Karzai Over Coalition Killings

A day after an agitated President Hamid Karzai reprimanded foreign troops for unnecessary civilian deaths, the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) shot dead one Afghan and wounded two others in retaliation for a roadside blast that damaged their vehicle.

Q&A: Nicaragua Is Not Likely to Meet the MDGs

Managua Mayor Dionisio Marenco does not believe that Nicaragua can meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which he describes as a wish list rather than an action plan, and underlines that his country is in need of enormous foreign investment in order to overcome its high levels of poverty.

BRAZIL: Floating House Made of Garbage – Art or Eyesore?

In a fetid canal filled with garbage from this Brazilian city, a bricklayer built a floating house and turned it into a symbol of recycling, leaving the authorities by turns applauding or frowning.

LATIN AMERICA: Inequality Undermines Development Goals

The main reason that Latin America is not making faster progress towards the Millennium Development Goals adopted by the international community in 2000 lies in the various forms of inequality that prevail in the region, former Dutch minister of development cooperation Eveline Herfkens told IPS Thursday.

ENVIRONMENT-CHILE: Public-Private Partnership Defends Biodiversity

The rich biodiversity of the Altos de Cantillana mountain chain two hours from the Chilean capital has received attention in the past two years through a unique and ambitious conservation model based on a public-private partnership.

LATIN AMERICA: Black Women on the Bottom Rung

There are at least 75 million black women in Latin America and the Caribbean, but those who occupy high-level political or public administration posts number less than 50. As activists pointed out to IPS this week, black women are at the very bottom of the social ladder in this region.

HAITI: Pain at the Pump Spurs Strike Actions

A two-day transport strike last week gripped Haiti's major cities and underscored a mounting crisis over fuel prices, which rose nearly 20 percent in just two weeks.

ENVIRONMENT-CHILE: Town of Alhue Goes Green

Time seems to have stopped in Alhué. The dirt roads, colonial history and low-key activity in this sleepy Chilean farming town of 4,500 make it hard to remember that downtown Santiago is just two hours away.

ARGENTINA: Psychiatric Patients’ Radio Station Up in the Air

La Colifata was the first radio station in the world to broadcast live from a psychiatric hospital, and has played a key role in the reinsertion of patients in the community. But now the Argentine station, which has inspired the creation of around 40 similar stations in Latin America and Europe, has run out of financing.