Full Coverage: Southern Europe

28.04.2008 Hundreds of Chileans have announced their intention to leave the Catholic Church following the Vatican's involvement in a local constitutional ruling to ban free contraception.

18.04.2008 Pope Benedict's papacy is "the 'greenest' ever," writes Gary Gardner, emphasizing that the religious leader actively embraces both environmental and social sustainability.

07.02.2008 A Spanish judge is currently hearing testimonies from Guatemalan survivors of genocide and other crimes against humanity perpetrated by the Guatemalan military against the Mayan population of this country during the 1980s.
From: Center for Justice & Accountability

31.10.2007 Spain's new electronic ID cards will reach 30 million citizens soon. The Interior Ministry has already distributed 1.2 million chip-based cards and expects to issue at least 800,000 more by the end of the year.

29.10.2007 Spain and France have sent diplomats to Chad where 16 of their nationals are still under arrest accused of child trafficking after being caught on Thursday trying to fly 103 young children out of the country to France.
From: EuroNews

29.09.2007 Anna is a self-confident nine-year-old Parisian girl whose comfortable life is turned upside down in 1970 when her parents get politics – Chilean, pro-Allende politics.

23.08.2007 Amnesty International sets out its policy on sexual and reproductive rights following a clash with the Vatican over abortion for rape victims, which the Vatican opposes.

28.06.2007 Europe has been urged to take collective responsibility for serious shortcomings in refugee policy "rather than stand by and watch people drown".

19.06.2007 Thousands of young Nigerian women are trafficked into sexual slavery each year, but European groups are working hard to support the victims and deter and arrest those who prey on young girls.

14.06.2007 Amnesty International today fought off a Vatican cardinal's injunction to Catholics not to donate to the organisation and stood by the rights of women and girls to be free from threat, force or coercion as they exercise their sexual and reproductive rights.
+ Vatican cardinal calls on Catholics to stop funding Amnesty

14.06.2007 Catholics should stop donating to human rights group Amnesty International because of its new policy advocating abortion rights for women if they had been raped, were a victim of incest or faced health risks, a Vatican cardinal said yesterday.

01.06.2007 The UN refugee agency has protested to the European Commission about the way boatloads of people from North Africa have recently been left stranded at sea, despite being in distress and at risk of death.

23.05.2007 Campaigners today celebrated the Italian government's withdrawal from a controversial element of the World Bank’s water privatisation agenda, on the eve of a donors' meeting in the Netherlands.

09.05.2007 The IUSS Pavia, Institute for Advance Study (Istituto Universitario di Studi Superiori) announces the start of the enrolment procedure for two Master Studies: Master in Cooperation and Development and Master in Cooperation and International Economic Integration.

06.05.2007 International donors, particularly Germany, France, Japan, Italy, Spain and Australia, have been accused of an inadequate or non-existent response to the UN humanitarian appeal for Chad.

12.02.2007 from The Sietch Blog:
Spanish orange juice producers have found a way to make ethanol from orange wastes.

22.12.2006 The Spanish government has made the largest contribution by any country to the UN to help meet the Millennium Development goals by 2015.

22.12.2006 The Spanish government has donated $700 million to help achieve the Millennium Development Goals.

28.11.2006 from Blue Climate:
Portugal will invest in a carbon fund to ensure that the country can meet its Kyoto targets for the 2008-2012.

24.10.2006 NEW YORK, Oct 24 (OneWorld) - A majority of people around the world reject the use of torture even if it is supposed to extract information that could save lives from terrorism, pollsters say. The finding suggests there is little support at home and abroad for President George W. Bush's defense of the abuse of terror suspects.