REFUGEES: Afghans Resist Going Home

Norway's offers of cash and its promises of reintegration support to failed asylum seekers to return voluntarily to Afghanistan has mostly been a failure, a new study finds.

NORWAY: Oil Fund Finds Ethical Success

Norway's 'oil fund' has risen to become the second largest fund in the world despite housing an ethical investments council which has kicked out major companies such as Wal-Mart, Lockheed Martin and Boeing.

DEVELOPMENT: Crucial Role for EU at Accra Meet on Aid

As the world's largest provider of development assistance, the European Union is bound to play a prominent role at a Sep. 2-4 international conference on boosting the effectiveness of aid in Accra, Ghana.

HEALTH-US: AIDS Plan Stronger But Still Flawed, Groups Say

HIV/AIDS activists Wednesday hailed President George W. Bush's reauthorisation of the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) to 48 billion dollars for fiscal years 2009 to 2013 as a major step in the global fight against AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria.

CENTRAL AMERICA: Backsliding on Human Rights

Central America is backsliding badly on human rights issues, and social unrest could flare up into civil wars like those experienced in the last decades of the 20th century, according to a new report on Human Rights and Conflicts in Central America 2007-2008.

HEALTH-NIGERIA: Little Progress on Maternal Mortality

Over half a million women die in childbirth annually around the world, according to the World Health Organisation. Nigeria alone accounts for 10 percent of these deaths.

RIGHTS-NEPAL: Court Ruling Emboldens Third Gender

Suman Tamang, 26, remembers feeling guilty for wishing he were a man. Tamang, born a woman, wanted to do the heavy work only men do, was friends with more men than women and was attracted to girls. "At that time, I didn’t really understand I was transgender, I was awkward and I knew I was different."

CAMBODIA: Polls Were Fair – EU Observers

An attempt by Cambodia’s four main opposition parties to reject the result of national elections, in which the ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) was returned in a landslide, has met with little support from local and international organisations monitoring the poll.

HEALTH: U.N. Claims Major Progress in AIDS Fight

Although the global percentage of people living with HIV has stabilised since 2000, the overall number of people living with HIV has increased due to new infections each year and wider access to antiretroviral therapy, says the new UNAIDS report on the epidemic.

AGRICULTURE-TANZANIA: Benefits of Cutting Out the Middleman

The Common Fund for Commodities plans to spend more than $100 million over five years helping farmers in the developing world to process their crops for added-value exports.

EDUCATION-ZAMBIA: Will Teachers Come To the Party?

"Life in the rural areas is unbearable, and teachers are not to blame for their refusal to take up rural posting. It is unfair for government to post young teachers to hard-to-reach rural areas," said Freddie Chongo (25), a primary school teacher in Mumbwa District, some 170 kilometres west of Zambia’s capital Lusaka.

LABOUR-EL SALVADOR: Near Universal Poverty Wages

Eighty-one percent of the economically active population of El Salvador do not earn decent wages, and two out of three young people are under- or unemployed, according to the 2007-2008 Human Development Report on this Central American country.

FINANCE: One Year Later, IMF Sees No End to Credit Crisis

The credit crisis unleashed by the U.S. housing slump a year ago continues to poison the global economy and central banks appear short of antidote, says the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

MIDEAST: Israeli Transcends Borders With a Virtual Bridge

Israelis are barred from travelling to the West Bank and Palestinians from entering Israel without a permit, but that has not deterred Zvi Schreiber, an Israeli living in Jerusalem, from creating a high-tech start-up company that does all its programming in the West Bank town Ramallah and its business development and marketing in the Israeli town Modi'in.

MIDEAST: Israeli Transcends Borders With a Virtual Bridge

Israelis are barred from travelling to the West Bank and Palestinians from entering Israel without a permit, but that has not deterred Zvi Schreiber, an Israeli living in Jerusalem, from creating a high-tech start-up company that does all its programming in the West Bank town Ramallah and its business development and marketing in the Israeli town Modi'in.

RIGHTS: Fewer Conflicts, But More Refugees

Despite a reduction in the number of violent conflicts around the world, the number of internal refugees has soared to levels not seen since the end of the cold war.

CHINA: Pledges on Rights, Environment Unmet – Critics

The party is all set. Firework fountains of red peonies and yellow dragons are ready to light up the skies for China’s biggest revelry ever.

LABOUR-THAILAND: Domestic Workers Everywhere but Invisible

Working in the confines of private homes, unprotected by the labour laws of the country, Thailand’s domestic workers are a silently suffering lot.

ENVIRONMENT-US: New Push to Clean Toxic Hotspot

Two New York City Congressional representatives are calling for Newtown Creek, one of the country's most polluted waterways, to be tested for the high levels of toxic chemicals that would qualify it for Superfund clean-up.

TRADE: Zimbabwe Overshadowed Development Issues at EU-SA Summit

The friendly atmosphere at the first ever European Union-South Africa in Bordeaux, France, at the end of last week may largely be attributed to how South African President Thabo Mbeki had helped convince Robert Mugabe, his Zimbabwean counterpart, to negotiate directly with Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, a few days earlier.

POLITICS-CAMBODIA: Hun Sen's Big Win Brings Responsibilities

The old saying ‘be careful what you wish for’ is apt in the wake of the decisive victory of the ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) in the country’s national election on the weekend.