‘Food Empires Creating Agricultural Crisis’

Forget speculators, forget biofuel farmers. The real cause behind the permanent food and agricultural crisis is the imperial food regime, squeezing money out of agriculture, a Dutch professor says.

Q&A: Cuba’s Catholic Media Multiply, But Change Is Slow

In the context of ongoing conciliation between the Cuban government and the Roman Catholic Church, the communications media of the latter are growing quickly on this Caribbean island where the press remains under strict state control.

’12 Angry Lebanese’ Touch So Many More

Straddling the hills overlooking the Mediterranean Sea is Roumieh, Lebanon's largest and most notorious high-security men's prison. Crowded into its dank and depressing concrete cells are those convicted as religious extremists, murderers, mobsters and spies.

MEXICO: Four Years On, No Justice for Atenco Women

At 30, Mexican activist América del Valle knows loneliness all too well: she spent four years in hiding, out of contact with friends and family, her only goal being to "endure" the government's persecution of her family.

ENVIRONMENT: New Biosafety Treaty Faces Tough Tests Ahead

A new international treaty on the safe use of modern biotechnology has just come into being, but developing countries say the real challenge lies in how its lofty ideas can be transferred into practical realities.

PERU: Women Sterilised Against Their Will Seek Justice, Again

Poor, rural, Quechua-speaking women in the Peruvian province of Anta who were victims of a forced sterilisation programme between 1996 and 2000 have filed a new lawsuit in their continuing struggle for justice.

U.S. Weighs Endorsing Indigenous Rights Declaration

Just over three years after having voted against it at the United Nations, the United States is in the process of reviewing its position on the U.N. Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

BRAZIL: Abortion, a Bargaining Chip in Campaign for Runoff

The issue of abortion has turned into a weapon that threatens to take away votes from the candidates in the campaign for the second round of presidential elections in Brazil, with conservative religious groups using it as a bargaining chip in exchange for their support.

DEVELOPMENT: To Feed the World, Gov’ts Break New Ground with Civil Society

For over a decade, seasoned activist Sarojini Rengam’s efforts to storm the bureaucratic barricades at global food security meetings in Rome hardly produced any cracks. The tightly structured agenda at the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) gatherings she went to were unequivocal about where activists stood – in the margins.

RIGHTS-AUSTRALIA: Activists Wary of Plan to ‘Export’ Asylum Centres

As the Australian government steps up its efforts to establish a regional processing centre for asylum seekers in East Timor, refugee advocates remain watchful for signs that any deal could result in the involuntary removal from Australia of people seeking protection here.

Rule of Law Prospers Most in Sweden, Least in Pakistan

The rule of law - a critical element of good governance – thrives best in Sweden, the Netherlands and in several other wealthy nations but is sorely lacking in Pakistan, Kenya, and Liberia, among other poor countries, according to a major new index released here Thursday by the World Justice Project (WPJ).

Sri Lanka Challenges Post-War Human Rights Probe

When Sri Lanka's External Affairs Minister Gamini Lakshman Peiris was at the United Nations last month, he challenged human rights groups to appear before a government-appointed 'Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission' (LLRC) probing human rights violations during the country's civil war.

SUDAN: U.S. Works to Avert Post-Referendum Bloodshed

With just under three months before southern Sudan votes on whether to become an independent country, the U.S. is stepping up efforts to ensure the vote and post-vote resolution are peaceful and credible – and NGOs are stepping up pressure to ensure that Washington follows through.

DEATH PENALTY-INDIA: No Noose Is Good News

Campaigners against the death penalty in India are hopeful that a series of commutations of hanging sentences to life imprisonment this month will add up to a trend against the award of capital punishment.

/CORRECTED REPEAT*/: U.S. Jews Increasingly Hawkish on Iran, Sceptical of Obama

U.S. Jews, who, next to African Americans, have constituted the minority most supportive of Barack Obama, are growing more sceptical of his performance and increasingly hawkish on Iran, according to a new poll released Tuesday by the American Jewish Committee (AJC).

MALAYSIA: Battle Over Indigenous Groups’ Land Rights Shaping Up

As the tabling in Parliament of a proposed law affecting their ancestral land draws near, Malaysia’s Orang Asli or ‘original people’ are gearing up anew for moves to challenge it.

EGYPT: Cornered Bedouin Play the Border Card

Since June, Egypt's Sinai Peninsula has witnessed an unusual flurry of local crises. The peninsula shares a border with both the Gaza Strip and Israel, and is inhabited mostly by the Bedouin tribe.

SOUTH-EAST ASIA: Activists Vow To Take On First Dam on Lower Mekong

A hydropower dam project in Laos that could permanently scar South-east Asia’s largest river, the Mekong, faces a strong wall of opposition from local and regional green groups determined to protect its pristine environment.

LATIN AMERICA: Growth and Social Inclusion Must Be Linked to Fight Hunger

The concept that the state plays a key role in overcoming chronic hunger is not a new one. But the latest figures from Latin America show that more public money and social programmes alone are ineffective solutions.

BRAZIL: Environmentalism Not a Top Priority for Voters

Getting voters to put a priority on policies that protect the environment is a challenge facing environmentalists and politicians in Brazil, especially in areas lacking in basic infrastructure, like the Amazon jungle.

Chilean Miners Rescue May Mark a Watershed in Workplace Safety

"This country has to understand that changes must be made," said Mario Sepúlveda, the second Chilean miner -- of the group of 33 trapped 700 metres underground for over two months -- rescued in the early hours of Wednesday morning.