MEDIA-HONDURAS: Ten Murders and No Justice

The murder of Henry Suazo, a correspondent for a radio station based in the capital, brought this year's death toll for reporters in Honduras to 10, and made this Central American nation the second most dangerous country for journalists in Latin America, after Mexico.

CENTRAL AMERICA: Threats Churn in the San Juan River

The San Juan River, centre of discord and diplomatic conflicts between Costa Rica and Nicaragua, is seeing its riverbanks fill up with economic projects that scientists and environmentalists say will irreversibly alter its course.

MALAWI: Women Claim Equal Share of Family Property

Seated on a wooden bench at her Katoto township house in Mzuzu, Grace Mkandawire’s face reflects the traumatic experiences she has endured since her husband’s death in 1998. She looks lost and confused and as she narrates her story there is fear, hatred and resignation that Malawi’s Marital Property Law of (1882) disenfranchises poor women like her.

CUBA: Opposition ‘Needs to Reflect’ on U.S. Criticisms Revealed by Wikileaks

The internal dissident movement in Cuba faces some big challenges in 2011, after ending the year with low marks from the top U.S. diplomat in Havana, according to confidential cables made public by Wikileaks, some of which were published on the official government website cubadebate.cu.

Indigenous Peoples Gain U.S., U.N. Recognition

As 2010 draws to a close, both the United States and the United Nations have reached out to one of the world’s most marginalised groups in society: indigenous peoples.

POLITICS- NAMIBIA: Numbers of Women in Government Declining

Twenty years after independence, representation of women in senior government structures and in Parliament is declining in Namibia. According to the latest demographic survey results of August 2010, out of a population of around 2 million, women outnumber men 10:9. In 2001, the ratio was 94 males per 100 females.

CAMBODIA: Aid Dependence May Hurt Successes in HIV, AIDS

Thanks to a healthy cocktail of foreign aid and a pragmatic condom policy, one of South-east Asia’s poorest countries is well on course to meeting an international target aimed at reversing the spread of HIV and AIDS.

PERU: Sacrificing the Rainforest on the Altar of Energy

The construction of five hydroelectric dams in Peru as part of an energy deal with Brazil will do considerable damage to the environment, such as the destruction of nearly 1.5 million hectares of jungle over the next 20 years, according to an independent study.

GUATEMALA: Women Make Inroads in Key Positions of Power

Guatemala, it seems, is trying out a new image. As of this month, women are at the helm of the Public Prosecutor's Office and the Comptroller General's Office, winning their posts on merit, in what local activists are calling an important step in women's access to political power -- though "there is a long way to go."

MAURITIUS: They Do Politics Differently

"I do politics every day, but partisan politics? No, thank you," says Jane Ragoo, long-time trade unionist and social worker. She believes in working to bring about change in society and improve people’s lives but has no interest in clambering onto a truck to campaign for office.

INDIA: Life Term for Activist a Setback for Human Rights

The life sentence served on Dr Binayak Sen on charges of helping Maoist rebels in eastern India has rattled people and organisations fighting to strengthen human rights in a country that prides itself on being the world’s biggest democracy.

PERU: Decades On, Women Remain Last in Line for Justice

Investigations of the raping of women in the 1980s during Peru's counterinsurgency war have ground to a halt, even though the national Truth and Reconciliation Commission filed the respective complaints in 2004. Not one sentence has been handed down for the soldiers alleged to have committed the rapes, while more victims come forward.

BALKANS: Political Pieces Assemble a Teenager

Mila looks like the thousands of teenage girls who visit the newly-opened, glamorous shopping mall in downtown Sarajevo. She’s discreetly dressed in black trousers and jacket, with carefully manicured fingernails. The 19-year- old’s name means "sweet" or "kind". The name is in harmony with her enchanting smile.

AGRICULTURE: Desperation Over Subsidies

As the rains start to fall in Malawi, marking the beginning of the growing season, government is continuing to implement the fertiliser and seed subsidy programme which has since made the country a bread basket in the Southern African Development Community, SADC.

BANGLADESH: Solar Advocates See A Sunshine Nation

Good news may sometimes be hard to come by in this South Asian country, but for solar power advocates here, Bangladesh has been a sunshine nation for the last few years.

WIKILEAKS: Africa Offers Easy Uranium

Wikileaks cables have revealed a disturbing development in the African uranium mining industry: abysmal safety and security standards in the mines, nuclear research centres, and border customs are enabling international companies to exploit the mines and smuggle dangerous radioactive material across continents.

MIDEAST: Racist Jews to the Fore

Emotions are running high in this working class town on the Mediterranean adjacent to Tel Aviv, the Israeli metropolis that has long been the symbol of liberal laissez-faire Israel. Principally, anti-Arab emotions: Racism is on the march.

ARGENTINA: Affordable Housing – A Distant Dream

While real estate investment and the number of upscale apartments for sale or rent are growing in the Argentine capital, tens of thousands of poor families are living in crowded shanty towns, and are demanding affordable housing and access to mortgage programmes.

RIGHTS: Guantanamo Closure Recedes Into Distance

President Barack Obama's hopes of closing the Guantanamo Bay detention facility appear as far from being realised as ever in the wake of new legislation approved by Congress this week.

Justice at Last for Peasant Environmentalists in Mexico

"I feel I can breathe more deeply and look more towards the future. I feel at peace," Mexican peasant Rodolfo Montiel told IPS, from somewhere on the west coast of the United States.

HUMAN RIGHTS: Festive season a nightmare for Kenya’s Displaced

The Christmas season comes with joy and merrymaking in Kenya, where preparations for the festivities are underway as people crowd the street to shop for clothes and gifts. But even as the cheer spreads all around, the situation is different for the thousands of internally displaced Kenyans (IDP's) still living in various camps.