With hoes, shovels, some 15,000 seedlings and a bolt cutter to break the locks that kept them out, students, community members and participants from nearby Occupy movements have laid claim to an undeveloped 10-acre parcel since Earth Day, Apr. 22, in Albany, California.

Going from being a country with a highly controlled press to one that has free, independent and functioning media in roughly a year is a tall order.

In meetings with Iranian officials in Vienna this week, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) apparently intends to hold up agreement on a plan for Iran's full cooperation in clarifying allegations of covert nuclear weapons work by insisting that it must first let the nuclear agency visit Parchin military base.

After decades of struggle, indigenous people in El Salvador will finally be recognised in the constitution — a first step towards recovering their community identity, which they have been denied by the state and by society at large.

Discussion of economic reforms in Myanmar (Burma) should not overshadow the critical need for a political solution to the longstanding grievances of the country's ethnic minorities, observers in Washington warned on Friday.

Indigenous people feel excluded from the official democratic systems in their countries as long as they can't be elected without forming a political party. This concern was brought up by a number of representatives of indigenous people of Latin America and the Carribean at a round-table discussion held on Thursday in New York.

'There is the beginning of my life. My father would call for prayer, ‘Allahu Akbar’,' says 72-year old Yacoub Odeh, pointing to a collapsed house perched high on the hill. 'The whole village would hear him.' Odeh was then eight years old: 'I’m the son of yesterday.'

As France’s president-elect Francois Hollande prepares to form a new government, many environmentalists are calling for the appointment of an ecology minister with real power who can deliver on promises to reduce the use of nuclear power as well as cut carbon emissions.

As schools of whales move to music undersea at image definitions of 6.54 million pixels on the giant ceiling mounted LED screen, 218 X 30 metres in length and width, expectations run high from the International Exposition Yeosu Korea 2012 at harbour town. The expo showcases 104 participating countries’ visions and achievements on the Expo theme: ‘The Living Ocean and Coast: Diversity of Resources and Sustainable Activities’.

Grasshoppers and other insects might become the next generation of drones, if researchers with the Israeli research centre Technion who are studying the movements of these insects succeed. Ultimately, they hope to be able to remotely control where the insects fly.