A primary topic of discussion at a weeklong international
water conference here can best be summed up in two words:
"dirty water".

The battle to resolve the global water crisis is being grossly
undermined by bad governance: bribery, extortion, embezzlement
and high-level corruption.

In a move legal experts are calling unusual, the one-vote
court majority that tossed out the lawsuit brought by five men
who claim they were tortured under the "extraordinary
rendition" programme of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency
departed from customary practice in suggesting several other
ways the victims might obtain justice.

Ángel Valencia was admitted to a psychiatric hospital in Mexico four years ago with a bipolar disorder. Today, after treatment, he is back in society and is an activist with the Washington-based organisation Disability Rights International.

Instances of ‘honour killings’ in Indian communities still
steeped in traditional beliefs continue unabated. Yet the
government has not enacted tougher laws that will deal a
decisive blow against this societal scourge.

He had decided to grow watermelons this summer on his one-acre (.405 hectare)
plot, and so Veera Narayana went about preparing the arid red earth by first
ploughing it and then lighting fires in the furrows.

The Chilean government is pushing through legal reforms in an attempt to bring to an end a nearly two month hunger strike by 34 Mapuche indigenous prisoners. But it is failing to address two critical aspects of the conflict: the lack of effective dialogue and a failure to recognise it as a political problem.

Amid continued high levels of violence and a steady stream of
reports of high-level government corruption in Kabul, a
growing number of foreign policy specialists are urging
President Barack Obama to reconsider his counterinsurgency
(COIN) strategy in Afghanistan.

Two weeks before the 2010 Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)
review summit at the United Nations, concerns are being raised
that gender equality is still largely divorced from efforts to
address climate change, even though women have a critical role
to play in solving – and are often most affected by – the
problem.

"Herding goats is tough with the thirst, sun, loneliness and hunger each day. And it can last forever. You herd as a girl, then as a wife, as a pregnant woman, as a mother and even as a grandmother," says Rukia Ibrahim whose 13-year-old younger sister was married off to a herdsman.

Latin American activists who want to call attention to mining developments located in border areas will gather in Chile to "pass judgement" on projects they regard as detrimental to local communities, the environment and national security.

Faced with mounting criticism because of its expulsions of Roma, or Gypsies, the
French government is trying to gain allies in what it calls the "battle" against
undocumented immigration and people-trafficking networks.

The European Union’s decision to suspend trade preferences for Sri Lankan
exports may have finally come into force, but the island nation is not budging an
inch on any of the powerful bloc’s recommendations on its controversial human
rights record.

Depending on who one talks to, Mt Mantalingahan is either a
treasure trove of untapped minerals lying underneath the
earth’s crust, or a biodiversity hotspot that is home to some
of the worlds rarest and threatened animals.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) is urging countries in Asia to remain
vigilant about the spread of the H1N1 influenza virus, which the international
body declared was no longer a pandemic a month ago.