ZIMBABWE: Beating the Housing Blues

Every month Cynthia Dube and the nine other women from her co-operative make sure they sell enough clothes and appliances to put 100 dollars each in a joint savings. When they have enough money, they will buy each member a plot of land. And eventually they will help each other build their own homes.

EUROPE: Trapped Between Droughts and Floods

Extreme weather conditions across Europe have transformed the continent into a climatic roller coaster - while rainfall in May was the lowest ever measured in Germany and France, June began with stormy showers that caused the death of at least one person, and high economic losses.

Street Harassment, Not ‘Compliments’

Men say they are giving compliments, or even claim they are being poetic. But to many women, cheeky or lewd remarks from men on the street are a form of harassment which is offensive, insulting and even denigrating.

OP-ED: Community Defenders in Peru: Planting Hope to Root Out Violence

Where is the justice? In Peru, a nation still struggling to recover from a sordid 20-year cycle of terror and political uncertainty, this simple yet poignant question has become an almost daily litany.

Rich Nations Wage Assault on Generic AIDS Drugs

Moves by developed nations such as the United States to tighten intellectual property laws are threatening to limit production and distribution of generic drugs, which experts say have been and will remain key in the prevention and treatment of HIV/AIDS and currently account for 80 percent of HIV/AIDS treatment.

SENEGAL: Making Hand Washing Easy

Think hand washing can't be fun? Think again. In Senegal, a unique water system offers people an easy, cheap and environmentally friendly way to wash their hands frequently, reducing the spread of hand-borne transmittable diseases.

CLIMATE CHANGE: The Developing South Holds the Key

Developing countries, which have huge potential for growth and are home to the majority of the world's people still living without electricity, will play a fundamental role in combating climate change, according to some experts.

Using Forests to Bridge the Carbon Gap

As global greenhouse gas emissions rise instead of decreasing, forests play an even more crucial role in fighting global warming, since experts believe it will be impossible to prevent a disastrous increase in global temperature without drastically curbing deforestation.

Governments and Powers-That-Be Fear the Internet

The global reach of the internet, and its ability to transmit information in real time and mobilise populations, creates fear among governments and the powerful, says Frank La Rue, United Nations Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression.

ARGENTINA: Avoidable Maternal Deaths on the Rise

Argentina is moving backwards in terms of maternal mortality, with a rate three times higher than those of its neighbours Chile and Uruguay. Maternal deaths, which are actually increasing, are often the result of unsafe abortions, in a country where the practice is illegal.

Bike vs Car on a Hot Planet

As global carbon emissions hit record-high levels last year, officials from leading Asian nations told the 2011 International Transport Forum in nearby Leipzig that their citizens want more cars.

OP-ED: Climate Talks: Voices of the Vulnerable Must Be Heard

Last week, the world received a warning. A disturbing report from the International Energy Agency, the respected international authority on energy policy, found that CO2 emissions in 2010 were the highest ever recorded.

SIERRA LEONE: Deforestation Leaves Poor Vulnerable to Landslides

Samuel Weekes remembers when the hills stretching out beyond the heart of Freetown were green.

Reimagining Food Systems in the Midst of a Hunger Crisis

Today one billion people are living in hunger, not because of scarcity of production or a shortage of food on shelves in the global marketplace, but because they "lack the most basic purchasing power needed to acquire it", Olivier De Schutter, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, said Thursday.

HIV Infections Down, but Treatment Access Still Uneven

Officials underscored the importance of stepped-up action Friday to combat HIV/AIDS, the worst epidemic the world has seen since it began 30 years ago, ahead of a high-level meeting on the disease at the United Nations next week.

ENVIRONMENT: Business Lobby Resists Ban on ‘Perverse’ Emissions – Part 2

For years, European governments and corporations have made use of a loophole in the Kyoto protocol on climate change to make exorbitant profits. According to some sources, this lucrative scheme has caused more pollution than ever before while lobbyists in Brussels have methodically undermined the European Commission's decision to put a stop to it.

ENVIRONMENT: Business Lobby Resists Ban on ‘Perverse’ Emissions – Part 1

For years, European governments and corporations have made use of a loophole in the Kyoto protocol on climate change to make exorbitant profits. According to some sources, this lucrative scheme has caused more pollution than ever before.

World’s Energy Poor See Receding Light at End of Tunnel

As the world continues to marvel at the widespread progress in modern technology and home electronics, there are still about 2.5 billion people - out of a global population of nearly 6.9 billion - who have little or no access to electricity.

ENVIRONMENT DAY: Better to Plant a Tree Than Curse the Desert

With deforestation claiming 5.2 million hectares annually and governments seemingly incapable of agreeing on a new pact to curb climate-altering carbon emissions, it would be easy to write off the situation as hopeless.

BRAZIL: Activists Call for Stronger Action against Violence in Amazon

Organisations of small farmers and human rights groups are disappointed with the measures announced by the Brazilian government to address the problem of violence in the Amazon jungle region, after four environmental activists were murdered in less than a week.

Libya Dominates EU-Africa Talks

Facing unrest in the north and a struggle against poverty elsewhere, leaders of the African Union and their European counterparts are working as "equal partners" to spread democracy and economic opportunity across the African continent.