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"Crude" sounds like the standard "this is an outrage" environmental degradation documentary, the latest in a line that includes "An Inconvenient Truth" and films about the death of the ocean, the evaporation of water, the murder of dolphins, even the disintegration of dirt. "Crude" fits that bill, but it is something considerably more interesting as well.The outrage in question is the subject of a class-action suit filed by 30,000 citizens of Ecuador against Chevron, the world's fifth-largest corporation, alleging that 18 billion gallons of toxic wastewater were dumped into the Amazon between 1972 and 1990, fatally poisoning the land and water and sickening inhabitants. The lawsuit, with a potential cost to Chevron of $27 billion, has been going on for so long, 16 years and counting, that the original American oil company in Ecuador, Texaco, was acquired by Chevron and no longer exists.

PITTSBURGH -- A relatively small and peaceful group of about 500 protesters, most demanding new jobs programs, marched through city streets in the first full day of demonstrations targeting the Group of 20 economic summit later this week.The turnout was less than the 1,500 expected, and some protest groups blamed the city delays in issuing permits and the promised threefold expansion in the city's police force for the small turnout. Protestors were also critical of comments made by President Barack Obama in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, downplaying the effectiveness of mass protest on abstract issues such as global capitalism.

HAVANA, CUBA More than half a million Cubans gathered in Havana on Sunday for a concert featuring Miami-based singer Juanes, a gig welcomed by US President Barack Obama, but criticized by Cuban exiles.Hundreds of thousands of parasol-waving fans braced blistering heat in the capital's storied Revolution Square, with merriment belying the political undertones that the concert has produced.Miami's Cuban exile community has criticized the performance, saying it will legitimize the island's communist regime, and Colombian-born singer Juanes received death threats ahead of the "Peace without Borders" concert.

Reporting from Cairo and Tehran - Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei attempted to unify Iranians on Sunday by blaming foreign media for "poisoning the atmosphere" and urged his nation to resist the "killer cancer" of an Israel backed by Western powers.Delivering a sermon at Tehran University before a crowd that included President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and opposition cleric Ayatollah Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, Khamenei said the West had failed in its attempts to undermine the government with large opposition protests during countrywide anti-Israel rallies Friday. "It showed that their [Western politicians'] tricks, spending money and political evilness do not influence the Iranian nation," said Khamenei, who was greeted with chants of "Leader, we offer our blood to you."

HAVANA TIMES, Sept.20 (IPS) - Shaded from the blazing sun by his straw sombrero, one of the principal leaders of the National Front Against the Coup d’état in Honduras declared, “The only solution to the political crisis is the return of Manuel Zelaya to the presidency before September 30.”“But this also requires the formation of a national constituent assembly to ratify a new Constitution to allow Honduras to be restructured as a progressive Central American nation,” added Rafael Alegría, leader of the Front. Alegria said a new Constitution must contemplate the end of ‘traditional groups of power’ through enacting deep reforms to the system of government, presidential reelections, the extension of that term of office to five years, the breakup of the armed forces and a total reorganization of the police. He spoke just prior to beginning a march through poor neighborhoods on the north side of Tegucigalpa on the 82nd day of protests against the Honduran coup d’état.

WASHINGTON—A high-ranking US senator said Thursday he told deposed Honduran President Manuel Zelaya to use "constructive means" in pursuing a solution to the political crisis that has wracked the Central American country since Zelaya's ouster more than two months ago. Sen. Richard Lugar of Indiana, the top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, criticized Zelaya for taking "provocative" steps before and after his removal, which contributed to "deep divisions in Honduran society."

Magodonga Mahlangu and her organization, Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA), are the 2009 Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award winners. WOZA is a grassroots movement of over 60,000 Zimbabweans working throughout their country, empowering women from all walks of life to mobilize and take non-violent action against injustice. Ms. Mahlangu is a bold leader and a pioneer of the women's rights movement in Zimbabwe who has led WOZA's determined campaign of direct action.  Tens of thousands of women have joined WOZA in standing up for human rights and speaking up about the worsening economic, social and political conditions in Zimbabwe. Since its founding in December 2002, WOZA has staged more than 100 non-violent marches in support of democratic reform and women's empowerment. The Government of Zimbabwe has jailed Ms. Mahlangu and thousands of WOZA supporters many times for their participation.

Today we announced the availability of 24 scholarships to attend an intensive ten-day session of this newspaper's School of Authentic Journalism, February 3 to 13 of 2010 on Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula. The application for scholarships is ten pages long and includes an essay requirement.The video above appeared on CNN last summer but was not filmed by the network. A citizen who had been on a bus to Tegucigalpa, Honduras, to attend a protest against the military coup d'etat there took out his cell phone camera and began filming after soldiers stopped a caravan of buses and ordered everyone out of them. The soldiers - as the video discloses - then shot out the bus tires with their rifles.

Liberian women from all religious and academic backgrounds played a courageous role to end the country's bloody civil war which lasted from 1989 to 2003. Wearing only white T-shirts, the women took on the warlords, including Charles Taylor and nonviolently brought peace to Liberia.  Well, their strength and perseverance in stopping the country's brutal civil war is the subject of a documentary – "Pray the Devil Back to Hell". It is showing in over 200 cities around the world, and tonight (Wednesday) the documentary will be shown at the World Bank in Washington, D.C.

Before dawn this morning, a small team of climate and Native Rights activists rappelled from the US observation deck at Niagara Falls. Dangling hundreds of feet above the ground, they sent a special welcome message to Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper ahead of his first official visit to the White House to push dirty Tar Sands oil.Not that he’s feeling so welcome anyway. Obama limited the meeting to just one hour. While some have called it a slap in the face, Aides say Harper will turn the other cheek. “The economy, and the clean-energy dialogue,” one aide told the Globe and Mail, “will dominate the discussions.” Obama needed to dodge controversy over oil imports from Canada’s tar sands in the midst of the Climate Legislation debate. Harper needed a story to go with his photo-op.

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran security forces clashed with supporters of opposition leader Mirhossein Mousavi and arrested at least 10 of them during annual anti-Israel rallies in central Tehran on Friday, a witness said."Security forces just arrested over 10 people," the witness said. "They are pushing protesters and beating them."Iranian authorities, including Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, had warned the opposition against turning anti-Israel rallies to street protests against the clerical establishment.

Sergels torg in central Stockholm was sealed off on Sunday afternoon as rival demonstrators clashed. A demonstration began on the square at around midday to protest against the regime in Iran. At around 2pm a further demonstration began directed against Israel and the two groups clashed in a war of words. "We have had to seal off the square and have to keep the groups apart, there is a tense atmosphere and a lot of verbal abuse being hurled at each other," Kjell Lindgren at Stockholm police told news agency TT. "We have redirected traffic heading towards the square as well, there are too many people milling about," he said.

The Archbishop of Canterbury has urged hunger strikers demonstrating against the treatment of 3,000 Iranian refugees in an Iraqi camp to end their protest. Hunger strikers outside the US embassy in London are demanding the US takes responsibility for Camp Ashraf. Residents of the camp say an Iraqi raid there in July left several people dead. Dr Rowan Williams says the situation at the camp is a humanitarian issue "of real magnitude and urgency", but adds there should be no more loss of life.

A losing presidential candidate in Zimbabwe ’s 2008 presidential elections and now a leading opposition figure Simba Makoni will next Tuesday stand trial on allegations of addressing an illegal meeting during his campaigns.Makoni, a close associate of President Robert Mugabe until he broke away from ZANU PF in February last year to challenge the octogenarian dictator, is being charged under the Public Order and Security Act (POSA).The charges against Makoni who came a distant third in the first round of the presidential vote last year won by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai stemmed from an alleged meeting attended by about 400 people in Harare.

An adviser to President Barack Obama and another U.S. official met with the Dalai Lama at his headquarters in Dharamshala, India, to brief the spiritual leader about the administration’s approach to Tibet. Presidential adviser Valerie Jarrett and Undersecretary of State for Democracy and Global Affairs Maria Otero held talks with the Dalai Lama today and yesterday, according to a statement posted on his office’s Web site. The Dalai Lama detailed to Jarrett the issues he wants Obama to take up with the Chinese government when the president visits China in November, according to the statement.

Security forces in Madagascar fired tear gas on Friday to try to disperse hundreds of opposition supporters gathering for a rally in the capital of the Indian Ocean island. Backers of ousted President Marc Ravalomanana massed in a park near a central square, but security forces moved in saying the demonstration had not been authorised.Andry Rajoelina, former mayor of the capital Antananarivo, spearheaded weeks of violent street protests before toppling Ravalomanana in a March coup with the help of dissident soldiers.Raharinaivo Andrianantoandro, spokesperson for Ravalomanana's party, said they had wanted to demonstrate peacefully to condemn Rajoelina's appointment of a new government this week and to convince the ruling authorities to resume crisis talks.

Amnesty International (AI-Ghana) and the Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions (COHRE) have kicked against plans by the Accra Metropolitan Assembly to forcibly evict more than 40,000 people leaving in a slum of Accra, popularly called 'Sodom and Gomorrah."The slum is a melting pot of various ethnic groups, with majority of them coming from the three northern regions. It has also gained notoriety for violence and crime. A recent bloody clash between supporters of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the National Patriotic Party (NPP) left four people dead.The latest violence sparked another round of plans to evict the residents, but AI-Ghana and COHRE in a petition to President John Evans Atta Mills copied to relevant ministries and agencies say they are deeply concerned about the threatened forced eviction of more than 40,000 residents.

The history of Non Governmental Organisations dates back for not more than four decades in Ethiopia. They were mainly engaged and their primary area of focus was in relief works and service delivery. It is only in the last 10 years or so that Organisations started to actively work on rights issues. Despite the number of limitations and some witnessed malpractices, NGO’s have been doing a commendable work in Ethiopia over the years. Restricted during the Derg regime, there were only few of them allowed to operate under tight government control. Freedom of association was de facto forbidden to independent professional associations, trade unions, the media, academia, the private business sector, and the like as they might be threats to authoritative ruling system. After the fall of the regime however, the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia came into being and created conducive working environment for NGOs/CSOs to work under, adopting a constitution which allows for the freedom of association and other related rights after having ratified different international instruments which comprised of different civil, economic, political and cultural rights.

Telling the truth—especially after imbibing one too many—is a sure way to end up in a Cuban jail. That’s exactly what happened to Juan Carlos Gonzalez Marcos, known by the nickname Panfilo, after he drunkenly burst into a documentary filming and began ranting about Cubans going hungry.Today, a Cuban appeals court upheld the two-year prison sentence Gonzalez Marcos received for “public dangerousness,” rejecting his plea for leniency.When he interrupted the documentary on Cuban music, he began yelling in Spanish, “"What we need here is a little bit of chow!" According to Associated Press reporting, He continued for more than 90 seconds, imploring the camera about how Cubans are going hungry in a country where the communist system is supposed to provide for all citizens' basic needs.

Although the international community has warned that it will not recognise the results of the November elections in Honduras, the de facto government in power since the Jun. 28 coup d'etat says the vote is going ahead.Costa Rican President Óscar Arias, who mediated the unsuccessful talks between ousted President Manuel Zelaya and the coup government, says the elections scheduled for Nov. 29 could be "a solution to the crisis." Others like prominent Mexican writer Carlos Fuentes have expressed similar views.