CLIMATE CHANGE: Uruguay Fends Off Health Threats – So Far

The incidence of cardiovascular, respiratory and water-borne diseases is rising in Uruguay in tandem with climate change, while dengue fever and malaria lurk at the country's borders. Higher temperatures are encouraging the presence of insect vectors carrying diseases that were eradicated decades ago, experts say.

CENTRAL AMERICA: Rampant Violence Means Childhood Interrupted

Very early one recent morning in the eastern Guatemalan municipality of Esquipulas, the residents slept soundly -- until heart-rending screams from the street broke the calm.

Female Presence Growing in Brazil’s Gangs

They are no longer simply the girlfriends of gang members. Women have increasingly become members themselves of Brazil's youth gangs over the past decade -- though they have yet to reach the leadership positions of their male colleagues.

Six Million U.S. Homeowners Looking into the Abyss

A crisis of foreclosures is twisting through neighbourhood after neighbourhood here, separating thousands of U.S. families from their homes each day and further unraveling the social fabric of low-income communities.

MEXICO: In Juarez, Years of Seeking Justice for Murdered Women

"Sometimes I'm cheerful, but other times I see no reason for working in the community or even for life," said Paula Flores, who has become the symbol of the fight for justice for the hundreds of women who have been murdered or disappeared in this northern Mexican border city.

MEXICO: Taking Fight for Decent Childcare to the Streets

"Sometimes I feel sad when things don't go ahead as well as I would like them to, but we have no alternative but to keep on trying," says Lourdes Almada, a Mexican sociologist and activist for children's rights, as she drives her pickup truck in Ciudad Juárez.

ARGENTINA: Football Referee School Offers Way Out of Poverty

A new school to train football referees to work amateur-level tournaments in Argentina aims at providing skills and a legitimate source of income for young people from poor homes.

BRAZIL: “Gol de Letra” Scores Goals off the Playing Field

In a country where many poor children dream of "making it big" through football or modeling, retired Brazilian football stars Leonardo and Raí could have simply basked in their fame. But they decided instead to combine sport with education, art and skills training.

BRAZIL: Saturation Policing Criminalises Poverty, Activists Say

The policy of a saturation police presence in the favelas or shantytowns that are home to around 20 percent of the population of this Brazilian city is merely a means of criminalising poverty, because it does nothing to address the underlying question of social exclusion, which drives the violence, human rights groups complain.

Like Colombia, Iconic City Remains a Place of Promise and Peril

The homes of the barrio of Comuna 13, tightly packed improvised brick and concrete structures that take on a semi- rural nature the closer one gets to the murky swift-moving Río Cauca, blanket the hills of the western edge of this city of 2.5 million.

Fouls and Goals for Climate Change at World Cup

South Africa, where the FIFA Football World Cup is to kick off Jun. 11, has introduced cleaner transportation, while Brazil is planning ecological stadiums for the championship it will host in 2014. But these and other initiatives clash with the countries' overall environmental performance.

BRAZIL: Everyday Superheroes Against the Mad, Bad World

They fight against a crazy world, armed only with dramatic improvisation. A programme of urban interventions from a university in Río de Janeiro is battling "the mad world" based on the archetype of the anti-hero.

BRAZIL: Report Challenges Rio Slum Evictions

The debate surrounding the evacuation decree for eight "favelas" or slums in this Brazilian city, ordered by the Rio municipal government citing the danger of landslides, has taken a new course with the release of a study that undermines the official argument.

URUGUAY: Job Training Moves “Trans” Off Streets to Better Future

Ruler in hand, Fabiana draws lines with a pencil on orange cardboard, occasionally pushing her curly hair away from her eyes. Next to her, Fernanda fashions a colourful cardboard box, a prototype for what their cooperative will ultimately produce in large quantities.

CHILE: Quake Survivors Don’t Want to Be Forgotten

"The situation is critical," said activist Iván Salazar, referring to the slow progress in providing emergency housing to people left homeless in his native Cauquenes, one of the Chilean towns hit hardest by the devastating Feb. 27 earthquake.

ENERGY: The Sun Lights Up the Night in Haiti

There are shortages of lots of things in Haiti: clean water, arable land, trees, living-wage jobs, housing, schools, fuel, reliable sources of electricity and Internet access. But one thing Haiti has in abundance is sunny days.

COLOMBIA: After Forced Displacement by Conflict, Relocation by Landslide

More than 380 families -- some 2,000 people -- in this vast working-class district on the fringes of the Colombian capital that is home to hundreds of thousands of people displaced by the armed conflict are to be relocated after landslides caused by leaking water pipes.

MEXICO: Acrobatics for At-Risk Children

Learning to do aerial acrobatics has not only helped 13-year-old Atenas Padilla overcome her fear of heights, but also to become more tolerant and creative.

BRAZIL: Eviction from Rio’s Slums Echoes Dark Past

The longstanding debate between eviction or upgrading of Rio's "favelas" or slums has gathered new force as this one-time capital of Brazil still shows the hillside scars left by rain-induced landslides in early April.

MEXICO: Children in the Line of Fire in Ciudad Juarez

In Ciudad Juárez, the most violent city in Latin America, Mexico's war on drugs has left at least 110 children dead in the past three years, and over 10,000 have lost parents.

Q&A: “I Feel Duty-Bound to Push for a Nuclear-Free World”

Emerging from a U.N. conference addressing the role that the world's mayors can play on nuclear issues, Hiroshima's Mayor Tadatoshi Akiba continues to call for a rapid end to nuclear weapons.