In the autumn of 2006 Hungary was rocked by a series of anti-government protests triggered by the release of a tape in which then prime minister Ferenc Gyurcsány confessed to his Social-Democratic Party (MSZP) having lied to win elections that year. Now it is payback time.

Josias Akataama spent March watching the moon wane above, and flood waters rise from below. Only with the sighting of the new moon, would the men, women and children of Kandiani know when they could leave the water-logged village for higher ground.

As he drops his last purification tablet into a pail of swirling, murky water, Sergio, 26, stares out toward the desert. Recently deported from Arizona, where he has a young child and where he has lived for the majority of his life, he explains, 'I have to return, it's my home.'

Alongside crucial emergency relief efforts, numerous organisations are offering free movies, concerts, plays, comedy performances and other cultural events aimed at lifting the spirits of people suffering the after-effects of the earthquake and tsunami that struck central and southern Chile on Feb. 27.

Francisco Jiménez, a member of the National Committee of Rural and Fishing Unions (CONORP) was arrested on Apr. 7 in the Mexican capital by agents from the southern state of Chiapas in what activists say is another case of arbitrary detention.

The crusade against corruption seems to be gathering momentum in this West African country, with the arrest and prosecution of senior government officials, including cabinet ministers.

The International Centre for Plant Physiology and Ecology (ICIPE), based at Mbita, on the Kenyan shores of the world’s second-largest freshwater body, is advocating 'push-pull cultivation' as the answer to feeding future generations in Africa.

In the driest capital city south of the Sahara, water engineers are 'banking' ground water to meet future demand, but the enormous costs might sink the project before water can be harvested.

The IBSA Fund, which finances anti-poverty projects in the most vulnerable countries, is an example of the spirit in which India, Brazil and South Africa wish to build their partnership, their leaders say.

A major structural renovation of the U.N. Secretariat is being used as a pretext to curb media access to delegates and Security Council members, and is also a veritable smokescreen to tighten restrictions on non-governmental organisations (NGOs) accredited to the world body, critics say.