Mexico Massacre Galvanises Migrant Rights Activists
    on 02/09/2010 15.28.06 GMT
Emilio Godoy * MEXICO CITY, Sep 1 (IPS) - Activists in Latin America have been galvanised by atrocities like the recent massacre of 72 migrants near the U.S. border to step up their efforts on behalf of migrant rights.... (continue)

Geothermal:Getting Energy from the Earth
    on 02/09/2010 15.08.02 GMT
Lester R. Brown* WASHINGTON, Aug 31 (IPS) - The heat in the upper six miles of the earths crust contains 50,000 times as much energy as found in all the worlds oil and gas reserves combined. Despite this abundance, only 10,700 megawatts of geothermal electricity generating capacity have been harnessed worldwide.... (continue)

NICARAGUA:Major Blow to Illiteracy Among Native Groups
    on 02/09/2010 12.49.54 GMT
José Adán Silva MANAGUA, Aug 26 (IPS) - For 46 years, Nicanor García didn't know that his first name was seven letters long and that the first letter was also the start of the names of his country, Nicaragua, and his father, Norberto. He found out just eight months ago, when he finally learned how to read and write.... (continue)

ENVIRONMENT-RUSSIA:Threat To Polar Bears Worries Russian Experts
    on 26/08/2010 10.43.28 GMT
Kester Kenn Klomegah* - IPS/IFEJ... (continue)

Hope Persists for Jailed Health Workers in Philippines
    on 25/08/2010 14.46.44 GMT
Beatrice Paez MONTREAL, Canada, Aug 25 (IPS) - A mother accused of backing insurgents in the Philippines and her newborn son are awaiting their release from prison, in a case that has gained international attention.... (continue)

Civil Society Watchdogs Crucial in New Global Order
    on 23/08/2010 23.43.50 GMT
Beatrice Paez MONTREAL, Canada, Aug 23 (IPS) - Six hundred delegates from more than 80 countries flocked to Montreal Aug. 20-23 for the CIVICUS World Assembly in search of innovative ways to approach global challenges like poverty and climate change.... (continue)

MEXICO:Junk Food Regulations in Schools Fall Short, Consumer Groups Say
    on 23/08/2010 22.06.20 GMT
Emilio Godoy MEXICO CITY, Aug 23 (IPS) - What was initially announced as a government ban on sales of junk food in schools has failed to keep fried and sugary foods out of the classrooms to which Mexico's 25 million primary and secondary students returned Monday after summer break.... (continue)

Q&A:"Democracy Deficit Is the Biggest Obstacle to Development"
    on 23/08/2010 20.53.34 GMT
Beatrice Paez interviews INGRID SRINATH, Secretary-General of CIVICUS... (continue)

Q&A:"Women Are the First to Cook and the Last to Eat"
    on 20/08/2010 01.14.52 GMT
Kumari Karandawala interviews activists from the new INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S ALLIANCE... (continue)

Funding Lags to Aid Pakistan's Millions of Displaced
    on 17/08/2010 00.16.50 GMT
Megan Iacobini de Fazio... (continue)

CHILE:Salmon Industry Won't Give Up
    on 15/08/2010 16.47.52 GMT
Daniela Estrada* - Tierramérica... (continue)

U.N. Salutes Indigenous Filmmakers
    on 11/08/2010 18.42.24 GMT
Jennifer Leong UNITED NATIONS, Aug 11 (IPS) - The United Nations celebrated the International Day of the World's Indigenous People this week by showcasing award- winning short films produced by indigenous filmmakers and reaffirming indigenous rights and cultural treasures.... (continue)

Americas Social Forum Celebrates Change in Paraguay
    on 11/08/2010 16.16.44 GMT
Natalia Ruiz Díaz ASUNCIÓN, Aug 11 (IPS) - The Fourth Americas Social Forum kicks off Wednesday in the Paraguayan capital with a colourful march through the streets, as some 12,000 people prepare to take part in the activities organised by 50 local groups and 550 organisations from Argentina to Canada.... (continue)

Trial of "Child Soldier" Opens at Guantanamo
    on 10/08/2010 22.26.18 GMT
Megan Iacobini de Fazio... (continue)

POLITICS-RWANDA:"Climate of Repression" as Voting Concludes
    on 09/08/2010 23.43.12 GMT
Zack Baddorf KIGALI, Aug 9 (IPS) - As voting concluded in Rwanda's presidential elections, with incumbent President Paul Kagame expected to win by a landslide, fears remain that not all citizens will accept the results amidst claims the elections were neither free nor fair.... (continue)

SINGAPORE:Youth Games Expose Olympic-sized Cracks
    on 09/08/2010 11.20.58 GMT
Stanislaus Jude Chan... (continue)

When Agrochemical Corporations Invented Nature
    on 06/08/2010 11.10.24 GMT
Julio Godoy BERLIN, Aug 6 (IPS) - A civil society protest against a British agrochemical company that claims it has invented a particular sort of broccoli has again focused attention on the question who owns natural biodiversity, especially vegetables, seeds, and many forms of meat and animal food products.... (continue)

MEXICO:Asbestos, a Toxic Neighbour
    on 03/08/2010 14.09.42 GMT
Emilio Godoy MEXICO CITY, Aug 3 (IPS) - It's summertime, so the "Año de Juárez" public primary school in Barrios de San Lucas, a working-class neighbourhood on the east side of the Mexican capital, is deserted.... (continue)

INDIA:Trade Talks with EU Put Drug Manufacturers on Edge
    on 03/08/2010 08.55.12 GMT
Keya Acharya NEW DELHI, Aug 3 (IPS) - Their ongoing negotiations remain shrouded in secrecy, but there are already reports that India and the European Union (EU) will have a free-trade agreement ready by the end of August, and that they will be putting signatures to it before the end of 2010.... (continue)

Ocean Losing Its Green
    on 31/07/2010 23.29.46 GMT
Stephen Leahy VIENNA, Jul 31 (IPS) - The oceans are the lifeblood of our planet and plankton its red blood cells. Those vital "red blood cells" have declined more than 40 percent since 1950 and the rate of decline is increasing due to climate change, scientists reported this week.... (continue)

U.N. Declares Water and Sanitation a Basic Human Right
    on 28/07/2010 23.30.26 GMT
Thalif Deen UNITED NATIONS, Jul 28 (IPS) - When the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) back in December 1948, 58 member states voted for a historic document covering political, economic, social and cultural rights.... (continue)

PAKISTAN:Life At A Time Of Suicide Bombings
    on 28/07/2010 06.26.36 GMT
Zofeen Ebrahim LAHORE, Pakistan, Jul 28 (IPS) - Like any other Friday morning, hordes of people flocked at the shrine of 11th-century Sufi saint, Hazrat Ali Hajveri, that is near Bhaati Gate inside Lahore's walled city on Jul. 2. By that afternoon, a much larger crowd had gathered at the site, this time for the usual Friday prayers.... (continue)

TRINIDAD:Death Penalty Debate Revived
    on 20/07/2010 20.50.12 GMT
Peter Richards PORT OF SPAIN, Jul 20 (IPS) - Faced with a steep escalation of the murder rate since it came to power on May 24, the new People's Partnership government in Trinidad and Tobago is considering resuming capital punishment as a means of dealing with the situation.... (continue)

Sustainable Aquaculture Picks Up Steam
    on 20/07/2010 19.37.04 GMT
Matthew Berger WASHINGTON, Jul 20 (IPS) - As farmed fish consumption catches up on wild, a search for sustainable aquaculture picks up steam.... (continue)

HEALTH:Intellectual Property Rights Remain A Barrier to Drugs
    on 20/07/2010 14.36.58 GMT
Isolda Agazzi GENEVA, Jul 20 (IPS) - Intellectual property (IP) rights are a key reason for high medicine prices, rendering such medicines unaffordable and therefore out of reach for poor people. While mechanisms exist to circumvent IP, poor countries have been browbeaten into adopting stringent IP laws.... (continue)

BRAZIL:Football Paves the Way to Masculinity Without Violence
    on 19/07/2010 21.42.54 GMT
Fabiana Frayssinet... (continue)

Canada Slowing Biodiversity Protocol's Progress
    on 19/07/2010 21.16.32 GMT
Beatrice Paez UNITED NATIONS, Jul 19 (IPS) - The spirit of international negotiations in Montreal on a draft protocol on Access and Benefit Sharing (ABS) of natural resources were marred by Canada's insistence on a decentralised approach to ABS, Peigi Wilson, a Métis lawyer present at the meeting in support of the Quebec Native Women, told IPS.... (continue)

HEALTH:East African Laws Confuse Fake and Generic Drugs - WHO
    on 19/07/2010 14.15.18 GMT
Isolda Agazzi GENEVA, Jul 19 (IPS) - The World Health Organisation (WHO) agrees that the anti-counterfeit legislation that has been adopted or that is under consideration in East Africa threatens the accessibility of affordable generic medicines.... (continue)

Canada Coming With Worse Than Oil
    on 19/07/2010 09.32.56 GMT
David Cronin BRUSSELS, Jul 19 (IPS) - Fears of a trade dispute with Canada have made European Union officials reluctant to categorise tar sands from North America as a more polluting fuel than conventional petrol.... (continue)

Right-Wing Agenda Slips Through Canada's Political Deadlock
    on 16/07/2010 14.55.32 GMT
Paul Weinberg TORONTO, Jul 16 (IPS) - Canada's parliamentary is so broken and dysfunctional that the country is in danger of becoming "the laughing stock" of the world.... (continue)

Civil Society Hails New Oil and Mining Transparency Standards
    on 16/07/2010 00.37.44 GMT
Jim Lobe* WASHINGTON, Jul 15 (IPS) - National and international civil society groups Thursday hailed the U.S. Senate's passage of a major financial reform act that includes a key anti-corruption provision requiring energy and mining companies to publicly disclose payments they make to governments around the world.... (continue)

ARGENTINA:Being Gay No Longer a Bar to Marriage
    on 16/07/2010 00.11.42 GMT
Marcela Valente BUENOS AIRES, Jul 15 (IPS) - Argentina is officially the first Latin American country to allow same-sex couples to marry, with the passage of a law Thursday that also permits gay couples to adopt children and to use assisted fertilisation to conceive a baby, rights that were hitherto restricted to heterosexual couples.... (continue)

Water as Human Right Threatens to Split World Body
    on 15/07/2010 23.43.48 GMT
Thalif Deen UNITED NATIONS, Jul 15 (IPS) - A long outstanding proposal to recognise the right to water as a basic universal human right is threatening to split the world's rich and poor nations.... (continue)

Former Presidents Denounce Drug War Ahead of AIDS Meet
    on 14/07/2010 15.56.24 GMT
Stephen Leahy BERLIN, Jul 14 (IPS) - The failed "war on drugs" has not only badly damaged countries where it is waged, it is responsible for driving up HIV infection rates in some countries, says an official declaration endorsed Wednesday by three former Latin American presidents in advance of the XVIII International AIDS Conference that begins Jul. 18 in Vienna.... (continue)

COLOMBIA:Midwives Seek Legal Recognition, Respect
    on 13/07/2010 21.12.18 GMT
Helda Martínez BOGOTÁ, Jul 13 (IPS) - In Colombia, western medicine has nearly succeeded in pushing midwives -- "parteras" or "comadronas," as they are known in Spanish -- out of existence. But some tenacious practitioners are pushing for a law to formalise the role of midwife as a health worker.... (continue)

New Weather Patterns Threaten U.S. Breadbasket
    on 13/07/2010 16.21.44 GMT
Perry Beeman* - IPS/IFEJ... (continue)

Wealthy Reap Rewards While Those Who Work Lose
    on 09/07/2010 13.05.10 GMT
Adrianne Appel BOSTON, Jul 9 (IPS) - Times are tough for workers in the U.S. where a recession has a stranglehold on much of the economy, but life is perfectly rosy for those at the top.... (continue)

Chile Threatens to Split South Unity in World Body
    on 07/07/2010 17.26.18 GMT
Thalif Deen UNITED NATIONS, Jul 7 (IPS) - The Group of 77 (G77) has historically maintained a united front, vociferously protecting the economic interests of developing countries at the United Nations.... (continue)

MIDEAST:Obama and Netanyahu All Smiles
    on 07/07/2010 00.55.34 GMT
Jim Lobe* WASHINGTON, Jul 6 (IPS) - Insisting that the bond between their two nations was "unbreakable", U.S. President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu emerged all smiles from their long-awaited White House meeting here Tuesday.... (continue)

POLITICS:U.S. Had the Last Word, But China Was the Winner at G20
    on 02/07/2010 10.31.12 GMT
Mitch Moxley BEIJING, Jul 2 (IPS) - U.S. President Barack Obama may have squeezed in the last word as the G20 summit wrapped up recently in Toronto, but it was China that came away looking like the summit's winner.... (continue)

Liberia Gets Debt Relief, DR Congo on Hold
    on 30/06/2010 20.29.06 GMT
Matthew O. Berger WASHINGTON, Jun 30 (IPS) - Liberian efforts to enact economic and governance reforms came to a head Tuesday as the World Bank and International Monetary Fund announced they were supporting 4.6 billion dollars of debt relief for the West African country.... (continue)

Gulf Spill Galvanises Activist Community
    on 30/06/2010 18.45.52 GMT
Matthew Cardinale NEW ORLEANS, Jun 30 (IPS) - With the U.S .government and oil giant British Petroleum under fire for their handling of the more than two-month-old Gulf Coast oil spill disaster, environmental and community activists across the country are taking matters into their own hands.... (continue)

Caribbean Summit Seeks United Front to Economic Crisis
    on 30/06/2010 16.57.56 GMT
Peter Richards MONTEGO BAY, Jamaica, Jun 30 (IPS) - Caribbean Community (Caricom) leaders are gathering here next week for their annual summit still struggling to recover from the two-year global economic and financial crisis that has taken a major toll on their individual economies.... (continue)

MIDEAST:When the Police Have an Illegal Headquarters
    on 30/06/2010 11.56.22 GMT
David Cronin BRUSSELS, Jun 30 (IPS) - Talks aimed at reaching an intelligence-sharing agreement between the European Union and Israel have skirted around the location of Israel's national police headquarters in occupied East Jerusalem.... (continue)

MIDEAST:When the Police Have an Illegal Headquarters
    on 30/06/2010 11.56.04 GMT
David Cronin BRUSSELS, Jun 30 (IPS) - Talks aimed at reaching an intelligence-sharing agreement between the European Union and Israel have skirted around the location of Israel's national police headquarters in occupied East Jerusalem.... (continue)

Free Ride for Oil and Coal Industry May Be Over
    on 29/06/2010 21.45.14 GMT
Stephen Leahy BERLIN, Jun 29 (IPS) - Every day, governments give away an estimated two billion dollars of taxpayer money to the fossil fuel industry. This unmatched largesse to a highly profitable sector by countries verging on bankruptcy or unable to feed large numbers of their own people is "complete madness", according to many experts.... (continue)

As Canada's Democracy Trembles, a New Global Architecture Emerges
    on 28/06/2010 12.54.32 GMT
Anthony Fenton TORONTO, Jun 28 (IPS) - Nearly 600 people were arrested as global leaders and elites met behind a fortified perimetre during the G8 and G20 Summits in Huntsville and Toronto this weekend.... (continue)

WORLD:"Anti-Counterfeit Deal Threatens Accessibility of Drugs"
    on 28/06/2010 09.59.50 GMT
Adam Robert Green LONDON, Jun 28 (IPS) - A proposed anti-counterfeit trade deal between 10 countries and the European Union (EU) could create "a new set of barriers to the export of generic medicines to low income countries".... (continue)

Love, Commitment and Anger in Detroit
    on 27/06/2010 23.51.36 GMT
Bankole Thompson DETROIT, Jun 27 (IPS) - The 2010 U.S. Social Forum ended Saturday in Detroit, a city viewed by many as a metaphor for the excesses of U.S. capitalism, with strong parting words from Pablo Solon, Bolivia's permanent representative to the United Nations.... (continue)