Intellectuals and artists concerned about continued racial discrimination in Cuba are attempting to revive the Cofradía de la Negritud (CONEG), a 'brotherhood' or association of black people aimed at raising awareness of the problem.

A historic bill seeking to punish domestic abuse still raises doubts about its ability to meet the goal it sets out to do: end violence against women.

Since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled last year that inmates at Guantanamo Bay have a right to go to federal court to challenge their detention, detainees have filed more than 150 such lawsuits.

Eager to restore Zimbabwe's moribund economy, the country's government has been soliciting investment globally. But the troubled southern African country finds itself in an unenviable balancing act between protecting its economic interests while attracting foreign investors.

The Chilean government has embarked on major works of infrastructure, national programmes and 28 competitions, in preparation for the 2010 celebrations of the 200th anniversary of the country's independence. But the bicentennial projects, which began this month, have drawn their share of criticism.

It was a news item that naturally filled me with admiration: one of the world's busiest and most overworked men, US president Barack Obama, was taking a week's vacation on the island of Martha's Vineyard off the coast of Massachusetts. But his rest would be that of an active and intelligent man: it included 2000 pages of reading. But the authors on Obama's list shared a common feature: they are all American and they all write in English, the dominant language of expression of their multi-cultural and multi-ethnic country, writes Leonardo Padura Fuentes, a Cuban writer and journalist whose novels have been translated into a dozen languages.

The Chinese government needs to engage local communities in harnessing its vast water and hydropower resources and pursuing sustainable development, says environmental advocate Yu Xiaogang, recipient of the 2009 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Participatory Social Impact Assessment for Watershed Management.

In the early morning sunlight, the smoky window of the plush new apartment reflects back a golden tinge from the Dome of the Rock that stands at the heart of Islam's third holiest shrine.

South America is perhaps most often associated with the Amazon jungle, the world's largest tropical rainforest. But along its western edge, from Ecuador to southern Chile and Argentina, it also harbours huge glaciers which are rapidly melting due to global warming.

A rising population and climate change need to be considered together in an integrated policy, experts demanded at a forum on sexual and reproductive health and development held in Berlin Sep. 2-4.