News stories by Emilio Godoy*

Two years ago, Ashkan Delanvar was arrested by Iranian authorities and held in poor conditions for 14 days before he was sentenced to 10 months in prison.

The global food crisis, which threatens to aggravate hunger and poverty, makes it necessary for agriculture to diversify, adapt to climate change and raise productivity, say FAO and experts.

After journeying 1,500 km from Honduras, 56-year-old Maura Sánchez reached the central Zócalo square in the Mexican capital Monday, to demand respect and justice for undocumented migrants in this country.

Rather belatedly, Latin America is beginning to test products imported from Japan to check that they are not contaminated with radioactivity from the Fukushima nuclear power station that was severely damaged by the Mar. 11 earthquake and tsunami.

Sharks are facing a new threat: they are being fished off the Pacific coast of Central America and Mexico and used to smuggle cocaine to the United States, through Mexico.

An anthropologist and human rights defender who has worked for years with the indigenous people in one of Mexico's poorest and most marginalised regions has been awarded one of the world's most important human rights prizes.

On a spring day in the Gulf of Mexico, a pipe issuing from the sea floor ruptured, sending an explosion rippling up to the drilling platform above and spewing oil into the surrounding waters. Experts scrambled to seal off the ever-increasing mass of oil by capping the pipe, clogging it or covering it. Nothing worked.

Mariana Rangel is filled with nostalgia as she gazes at the abandoned installations of the Dos Estrellas mine, where she worked as a secretary for six years. 'Those were years of prosperity; this is all there is left,' she tells IPS, pointing to what used to be the local hospital.