One of the world's biggest health threats is also one of the least recognised - more than 100 million people who literally breathe and eat toxic pollutants like lead, mercury, chromium every day, according to the first-ever detailed assessment.

'Community radio stations in Haiti play an indispensable role during catastrophes, and so do women, who can identify the most urgent needs of families during the reconstruction of the country,' said a representative of one of these stations in the Caribbean island nation.

A political fault line has emerged just days after Burma’s junta held the country’s first election in two decades, one that was held on Nov. 7 with near military precision to ensure a sweeping victory for the military regime’s allies.

The triumph of a left-wing candidate, Gregorio Santos, as governor of the region of Cajamarca, one of Peru's richest mining areas, has raised concern among mining companies operating there in a climate of tension and conflicts with local communities.

Labour unrest appears to be far from over in southern China, although striking workers at the Japanese-owned Ricoh Elemex factory in Bao’an district in this city were recently forced back to work by local officials accompanied by around 400 armed police officers.

Samer Hamdan*, a 26-year-old Palestinian prisoner, recalls being beaten until he bled. Seeing other prisoners covered in blood and screaming is the norm in the Israeli prison, he says.

An international agreement reached in the Japanese city of Nagoya constitutes a great step forward towards protecting biodiversity from decimation, but also represents an enormous legislative and administrative task, environment experts say.

It takes a moment to understand what the six-metre high net has been set up to capture: water. The Tshiavha Primary School's water supply is pulled out of the fog that rises over this mountainous part of South Africa's Limpopo Province.

'The U.S. intentionally confuses al Qaeda with other groups around the world fighting for their independence or liberation, but it's [just] a convenient way to whip up support and get people very afraid,' says author and journalist and Reese Erlich.

Disappointed with the outcome of the most recent informal talks with Morocco, the pro-independence leaders of Western Sahara are calling for the U.N. to take action against what they describe as Rabat's 'unprovoked military aggression' against their people.