Education Cracks in Haiti

When Angelique tells her story, sadness and anger are mixed in her voice. She's a student at the bustling University of Paris 8 here, but her country and family are never far from her thoughts.

Support Growing for Degrowth

In the face of a global recession that has not yet run its course, there is growing demand now for an economic model away from reliance on continued growth.

RIGHTS-CHINA: For Too Many, Domestic Violence Part of Family Life

Despite successful campaigns to promote gender equality, China continues to struggle with high rates of domestic violence, which experts say impacts not only families but society as a whole.

MEXICO: Native Women Raped by Soldiers Find Justice at Regional Court

"I dream of returning to my community and for everything to be normal again, although that won't be easy," Valentina Rosendo, one of two indigenous women who found justice at the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, told IPS.

VENEZUELA: Chavez Revving Up Revolution with Land Takeovers

Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez announced the expropriation of a subsidiary of the British Vestey Group, and of Agroisleña, a major agricultural firm founded by Spaniards half a century ago, indicating that he is radicalising his Bolivarian revolution in spite of a drop in support for him in the recent parliamentary elections.

SINGAPORE: As Country Mourns, Political Differences Set Aside

"Estimated waiting time: 3 hours", read a handwritten sign near the tail of the snaking queue outside the Istana, which is usually used to receive state guests. Yet thousands of Singaporeans waited patiently despite the sun beating down mercilessly.

INDIA: Indian Schools Will Spare the Rod, and the Child

Child rights activists hope that the arrest of the principal of one of India's elite public schools for caning a student and possibly abetting his suicide will serve to put an end to the widespread practice of corporeal punishment in this country's educational institutions.

Engineering a Water Crisis in Rivers

Failure to protect and invest in nature has left the world’s rivers in crisis, threatening the water supply of more than five billion people according to a new study. Pollution, dam building, agricultural runoff, conversion of wetlands, and water-works engineering have severely impacting global river systems, the first- ever health assessment of the planet’s riverine ecosystems reported in Nature last week.

Peacemaking Raises Identity Fears

The fate of the just resumed Palestinian-Israeli peace-building efforts is being kept under a tight wrap by all parties. So far, so good.

EUROPE: Bosnia Progresses to a New Mess

Elections in Bosnia and Herzegovina last Sunday have passed without changing much. Bosnian voters had a difficult political scene to tackle.

MIDEAST: Israel Deports Peace Laureate

Irish Nobel Laureate Mairead Corrigan Maguire was deported from Israel Tuesday after spending more than a week in detention at Tel Aviv Airport as she attempted to fight the deportation order.

PHILIPPINES: Over Decades, Child Poverty Hasn’t Changed Much

His bones pushing against his skin, Lean Ray Francisco has been feeding on rice coffee, or coffee made from roasted rice, and rice water - left over from boiling rice - for most of his three years.

MIDEAST: U.S. Scrambles to Save Peace Talks

With a key Arab League meeting delayed until Friday, the administration of U.S. President Barack Obama is scrambling to keep one-month-old direct Israeli- Palestinian peace talks alive.

BRAZIL: Two-Party Domination Showing Signs of Exhaustion

Brazil's presidential elections, which will be decided in an Oct. 31 runoff, have once against reflected the confrontation of the two parties that have dominated national politics since 1994. However, the unexpectedly strong performance of Green Party candidate Marina Silva points to a weakening of that dichotomy.

Q&A: “Gender Not a Limiting Factor in Politics”

In the rural KwaZulu Natal town of Jozini, Thembeni Madlopha-Mthethwa has been the town’s mayor for a decade. And in contrast to the rest of the country, which has experienced numerous civil strikes and service delivery complaints, Jozini has rarely had any such problems.

UN Delegations Seek to Boost Reconciliation in Honduras

The cause of dialogue and reconciliation in Honduras has received a boost from visits by two United Nations delegations, here to test the waters in preparation for talks to resolve political and social conflicts triggered by the coup that ousted former president Manuel Zelaya in June 2009.

US: NGOs Condemn Merger of Immigration and Criminal Justice

As two Democratic senators introduced yet another version of immigration reform legislation - and two Republican senators immediately condemned it - more than 500 not-for-profit organisations called on President Barack Obama to end what they called "the merger of immigration enforcement with criminal justice."

PERU: “No Sentence Will Bring Them Back to Life”

"My son Javier received eight bullets, one for each year of his life. That pain can't be erased by a sentence," Rosa Rojas, who lost her husband and young son in the 1991 Barrios Altos massacre in Peru, told IPS.

Land Reform, a Top Priority of New Colombian Government

Although many believe it's a mission impossible, the Colombian government of Juan Manuel Santos is prepared to use all necessary resources to return their land to some four million peasants displaced by the war, and guarantee intensive use of the country's arable land, as part of an ambitious agricultural policy.

DR CONGO: Mapping Road Towards Ending Impunity

Rights defenders in the Democratic Republic of Congo are encouraged by the publication of a report detailing grave violations of human rights in the DRC. The report, covering more than 600 incidents in the ten years between March 1993 and June 2003, has drawn criticism from several governments in the region.

AUSTRALIA: Solar Energy Gets a Boost, But Offers Much More

Proponents of renewable energy say that a planned large-scale solar power plant in Australia’s northern Victoria state, which will produce enough output to provide electricity to 60,000 homes, is just a fraction of what could be achieved if federal and state governments were fully committed to harnessing solar energy.