COLOMBIA: Embezzling Health Funds as Children Starve

The arrest and investigation of officials accused of stealing public health funds in an impoverished Colombian region where a dozen children have died of malnutrition show to what extent corruption is an obstacle for the country's prospects of meeting poverty reduction targets.

RELIGION-COLOMBIA: Changing World, Changing Faiths

The Catholic Church is losing members every day in Colombia, despite its deep-rooted religious tradition in this country, while evangelical congregations are filling their churches to overflowing.

COLOMBIA: Miners’ Woes Heard – If Faintly – in US

The pattern of persecution of miners in Colombia overlaps with the map of operations of foreign corporations, especially U.S. companies, Colombian trade unionists told a U.S. legislator.

COLOMBIA: Coal Mine Accidents Underreported to Protect Livelihoods

Colombia took in more than 1.3 billion dollars in revenue from coal exports last year. But miners continue to work in inadequate conditions, lacking job stability, safety measures and health coverage.

COLOMBIA: Women Suffer Abuse Behind the Front Lines

"The actors in the Colombian armed conflict, in particular the paramilitary groups and the guerrilla, employ physical, sexual and psychological violence against women as a strategy of war," stated the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR).

RIGHTS-COLOMBIA: Constitutional Court Holds Out Hope for Displaced

"You can't imagine what it is like to lose everything in a split second, to flee as fast as you can with your terrified, hungry family, with no friends and without a single peso in your pockets, full of sadness because you're leaving behind everything - however much or little - that you have gained after years of work."

COLOMBIA: Open Your Books, Please, Bogota

For the first time, a Latin American city has been named World Book Capital. Bogotá will have this honour in 2007 by courtesy of UNESCO, with the main aim of promoting a dying habit: reading.

COLOMBIA: Child Combatants, Victims and Victimisers

Thousands of children and teenagers are involved in Colombia's armed conflict, after being drawn into insurgent and paramilitary groups by means of deception, tempted by promises of an income, or to escape poverty and the lack of opportunities for a better life.

COLOMBIA: Biodiesel Push Blamed for Violations of Rights

The Colombian government is stepping up production of biofuels amidst an unstable mix of a boom in clean energy technologies, the advance of monoculture and the stripping of indigenous and black communities of their land, a habitual practice in Colombia's four-decade civil war.

COLOMBIA: Concern Over U.S. Free Trade Deal and Tariff Benefits

Indigenous and black people, trade unionists and victims of the armed conflict in Colombia are preparing to fight the ratification of the free trade agreement (FTA) with the United States, which will be signed by the trade ministers of both countries Wednesday in Washington.

COLOMBIA: Senate, Civil Society Call for Prisoners-for-Hostages Swap

Lawmakers in Colombia have joined civil society groups in opposing President Álvaro Uribe's decision to stage a violent rescue of hostages in the hands of the FARC rebels and to cut off preliminary contacts with the guerrillas that were aimed at negotiating a humanitarian exchange of hostages for imprisoned insurgents.

COLOMBIA: Poverty – the Old, the New and the Newest

The fight against poverty is currently a focus of controversy in Colombia, with the government and its critics arguing now not about the percentages, but about how they are calculated.

SPORTS-COLOMBIA: Fighting Violence – in the Stadiums

Father Alirio López, standing in the middle of the stadium dressed in a jersey with the logos of the two Colombian football teams that are playing each other that day, calls on fans to stay calm and urges them to watch the game in peace.

COLOMBIA: International Mission Hears Indigenous Cry for Help

Indigenous people's organisations in Colombia presented an international mission with a document protesting human rights violations and urging that they be supported as an especially vulnerable group in the armed conflict that has been going on for over four decades.

COLOMBIA: Measuring the Cost of Paradise by Cup Size

Setting a telenovela ratings record in Colombia, more than six million viewers recently tuned in to an episode of "Sin tetas no hay paraíso", (Without Tits There's no Paradise), barely two weeks into the show's run. The record means a lot to this country, which has become one of the world's leading exporters of soap operas.

LABOUR-COLOMBIA: Flower Power – But Not for the Workers

The Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between Colombia and the United States that could be signed in October or November this year will maintain the tariff exemptions already enjoyed by Colombia's flourishing flower industry. But there are no plans for higher wages and better working conditions for the industry's 100,000 workers.

COLOMBIA: ‘We Will Not Leave Our Land’ Say Pijao and Paez Indians

The Pijao and Paez indigenous communities in Colombia, who survived near extermination at the hands of the Spanish colonialists, continue to defend their land, lives and cultures against a new array of encroachers, as they face evictions, displacement, death threats and forced disappearance.

COLOMBIA: More Taxes on the Poorest

Colombian workers will see their purchasing power cut if the legislative Congress approves a tax reform measure being presented by Álvaro Uribe's administration on Thursday, Jul. 20, the anniversary of Colombia's independence in 1810.

RIGHTS-COLOMBIA: Housing Solution Needed, Not Tear Gas and Fire

While the Canadian city of Vancouver hosted the third World Urban Forum this week to discuss ways to improve the lives of the world’s one billion slumdwellers, in Cali, Colombia the police forcibly evicted a group of homeless families twice after negotiations for a solution fell through.

RIGHTS-COLOMBIA: Housing Solution Needed, Not Tear Gas and Fire

While the Canadian city of Vancouver hosted the third World Urban Forum this week to discuss ways to improve the lives of the world’s one billion slumdwellers, in Cali, Colombia the police forcibly evicted a group of homeless families twice after negotiations for a solution fell through.