As the cinema lights switched off, the groups of painters, impromptu filmmakers and craftspeople who filled the parks and plazas of this eastern Cuban town over the past week began to drift away. The musicians who played every night till dawn are gone, and so are the vendors of prawn cocktails, crabmeat pies and roast suckling pig.

The blockbuster, critically acclaimed film 'Avatar' portrays the ruthless plundering of a pristine ecosystem on a distant planet by greedy corporate interests — a scenario that is all too familiar to many indigenous communities here on Earth.

A convoy of Omar al-Bashir supporters, hooting and chanting party slogans as it drove through Khartoum, drew only disinterested stares en route to a celebration at party headquarters on Apr. 26

Political sectors opposed to the Venezuelan government of President Hugo Chávez have elected 22 candidates in primaries, and selected another 143 by consensus, to compete in September for the 165 seats in the single-chamber parliament.

The growing threats against minorities and ethnic groups - who are vulnerable to mass killings and genocides - have significantly increased in three countries: Sudan, Russia and the Philippines.

The UN-led global initiative to use forest conservation as a way to offset greenhouse gas emissions heated things up at the people's summit against climate change in Bolivia. In the end, the participants reached a consensus - and rejected the plan.

The indefinite postponement of the purchase of five Chinese tanks and a failed test of Israeli missiles have called into question the transparency and effectiveness of major military purchases in Peru.

Human rights groups are telling the United Nations that the United States is failing to hold corporations, including private government contractors, accountable for human rights abuses ranging from human trafficking to murder.

After tens of thousands of people turned out to protest against any extension of life to existing nuclear power plants, it seems clear that Germans continue to be emphatically opposed to nuclear energy.

He is among the most respected international jurists. But in Israel today, and in much of the Jewish world, he is among the most reviled.