IPS, civil society's leading news agency, is an independent voice from the South and for development, delving into globalisation for the stories underneath.

CERRO DE PASCO, Peru, Jan 5 (IPS) - An immense open-pit mine located 4380 metres above sea level is swallowing up the centre of the city of Cerro de Pasco in Peru’s central highlands, while the damages, in the form of toxic waste, spread to nearby villages.

BUENOS AIRES, Jan 2 (IPS) - Ecoclubs, an international social movement of teenagers and young people who work with their communities to enhance quality of life through environmentally-related initiatives, while developing their own potential for leadership and action, were born in Argentina 16 years ago and have since expanded to 30 countries in Latin America, Europe and Africa.

PHNOM PENH, Jan 1 (IPS) - It has been a long held plan of Cambodia’s government -- a hydropower dam on the mainstream of the Mekong River in the central part of the country.

BOSTON, Dec 31 (Tierramérica) - Warm ocean currents may have confused some 2,500 penguins from Argentina's Patagonia region that washed up -- dead and alive -- on Brazil's northern coast.

AMARELEJA, Portugal, Dec 30 (IPS) - The most ambitious and innovative solar power project in the world kicked off Monday in this white-walled village in the southern Portuguese municipality of Moura, one of the most impoverished areas in the European Union.

MELBOURNE, Dec 30 (IPS) - The gap between the Rudd government’s rhetoric and practice in addressing climate change, albeit with one eye on the worsening global financial conditions, has led to a palpable feeling of betrayal among Australians.

MEXICO CITY, Dec 26 (Tierramérica) - The Mexican mining company Autlán maintains that there is no evidence that manganese causes any harm to human health. But in the central state of Hidalgo, where the metal is mined, adults shake as if they suffered from Parkinson's disease and children's mental development lags behind normal.

LILONGWE, Dec 26 (IPS) - Climate change will affect the Zambezi River basin more severely than any other river system in the world, according to Kenneth Msibi, Water Policy and Strategy Expert for the Southern African Development Community (SADC). Increased floods, drought and increased levels of disease threaten lives and livelihoods all along the river’s length.

QUEBEC CITY, Dec 24 (Tierramérica) - "Terrifying" is the word that best describes the situation of a hunter who is lost on shifting ice, or of the homeowner whose house splits in two when its foundation sinks, says Canadian indigenous leader Mary Simon when asked about the effects of global warming on the Inuit people.

MELBOURNE, Dec 24 (IPS) - With electronic items high on Christmas shopping lists, a new report is calling on the government to ensure that manufacturers collect and recycle unwanted computers and mobile phones to protect environmental and human health.