Latin America

Five nations still outlaw homosexuality and carry out executions of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people, according to a recent report by the U.S. group Human Rights First.

The fight against corruption has taken centre stage in the government of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, and has led to the resignation or dismissal of several ministers over just a few months.

On the tenth day of a protest wave that has been gaining momentum since Aug. 20 and will continue until Sep. 3, nearly 300 people gathered in Lafayette Park directly across from the White House in Washington D.C., chanting, “When I say ‘tar sands’, you say ‘no!’ When I say ‘action’, you say ‘go!'”

The assassination of Brazilian Judge Patrícia Acioli, who was investigating militias made up of off-duty police and death squads, points to a new stage of organized crime, which is expanding into the vacuum left by the impunity surrounding 90 percent of murders in the state of Rio de Janeiro.

Eighty thousand tiny houses dot the countryside near this coastal city, located just west of the epicenter of the Jan. 12, 2010 earthquake that killed some 200,000 and displaced over one million.

“I’m 60 years old and I never thought I’d see this moment with my own eyes,” Najib Taghuz tells IPS from the Tunisian-Libyan border. The engineer from the recently liberated town Gehryan is headed for Tunisia – his wife needs surgery on the left hand. But he hopes to return to a new Libya.

Rebels have entered the fortified compound of Muammar Gaddafi in Bab al-Azizya in Tripoli, following intense fighting with forces loyal to the Libyan leader.

El rebelde Consejo Nacional de Transición de Libia anunció el fin del régimen de Muammar Gadafi, cuyo paradero actual se desconoce mientras prosiguen los combates en Trípoli.

After decades of not bothering to switch off the lights in unoccupied rooms in their Tokyo home, Masayoshi Sakurai and his children now meticulously make sure they do.