RIGHTS: For Some, Childhood Is Rubbish

"When I thought of my future, I saw my whole life picking through this rubbish dump," says 20-year-old Julia Castillo. "I never thought I'd get away."

DEVELOPMENT: Faced with Clashes, It&#39s Good to Talk

With clashing civilisations, as with clashing people, there's one strategy that works: talk your way out of it. Just how is, of course, the more difficult question.

MIGRATION: Italy to Be Home to 10 Million

Regular migrants have reached 6.2 percent of the population of Italy, above the European average of 5.6 percent. In the next 20-30 years, Italy is destined to become one of the EU countries with the highest population of migrants and people of migrant origin - more that 10 million - according to an annual report on migrations released Tuesday.

DEVELOPMENT-LATIN AMERICA: &#39Italy Wants to Play Its Role&#39

The European Union could help in better distribution of the benefits of economic growth in Latin America, under proposals presented at a meeting between Italy and Latin America-Caribbean countries this week.

DEVELOPMENT: ‘Poverty an Issue in Europe Too’

Civil society groups in Central and Eastern Europe want to remind their governments Oct. 17 that poverty exists in their own countries, and not just in those usually considered developing countries.

RIGHTS: Keep Watch from Space

The use of satellite images earlier this year to document human rights violations and support humanitarian assistance in Darfur has strengthened interest in wider use of satellite technology for humanitarian purposes.

MEDIA: Young Journalists Explore What It Means to Be Muslim in Italy

With the help of a new monthly magazine, 'Yalla Italia' (Come On, Italy), some young second-generation Egyptian, Moroccan and Tunisian immigrants are attempting to explore and address the stereotypes considered an obstacle to their full integration in this predominantly Catholic European country.

LABOUR: Just Work on the Environment

Employment stability is linked to environment sustainability, experts said at an international trade fair here last weekend.

RIGHTS: Executions Begin to Decline

Three people were hanged in Japan Friday, one was executed in the United States a day earlier. Not good news for those campaigning for abolition of the death penalty.

RIGHTS: Executions Begin to Decline

Three people were hanged in Japan Friday, one was executed in the United States a day earlier. Not good news for those campaigning for abolition of the death penalty.

ITALY: Filipinas Spur Gender-Based Development

Filipino migrant workers around the world sent home 12.8 billion dollars in remittances last year, almost 20 percent more than in 2005. Of these, 44 million dollars come from Italy, the fourth biggest source of remittances sent by Filipino workers after the United States, Saudi Arabia and Canada, according to the World Bank.

ITALY: Not Too Young to Know Their Rights

Minors landing on Italian coasts will be taught their rights under a new law.

ITALY: Thirty Years On, Some Justice

Angela Maria Aieta, Giovanni Pegoraro, and his daughter Susanna were abducted, tortured and killed in Argentina 30 years ago during the military dictatorship of Gen. Jorge Rafael Videla. Justice, of a kind, came earlier this week.

ITALY: Government in Crisis, Again

The Italian government is in crisis after it failed to win a vote Wednesday on its foreign policy programme. Although the ruling centre-left coalition held only a very slight majority in the Senate, the defeat of the motion came as a major surprise to Prime Minister Romano Prodi.

RIGHTS: Italian Intelligence Battle over Abducted Cleric

Abu Omar apparently never knew he had been tailed, so he did not notice that the Italian political crime investigation unit, DIGOS, had stopped following him. But the head of the Central Intelligence Agency in Milan Robert Seldon Lady knew that DIGOS had aborted the chase, and that facilitated the abduction of the Egyptian cleric.

RIGHTS: European Parliament Turns Policeman Over Renditions

Several European countries may soon be asked to explain their "passivity" over illegal renditions by the CIA through European airspace between 2001 and 2005.

AFGHANISTAN: Most Italians Want to Quit

Fifty-six percent of Italians want Italian soldiers to leave Afghanistan, according to an opinion poll commissioned by the daily news online La Repubblica.

RELIGION: Pope Finds Support for Middle East Stand

Pope Benedict XVI has found some support for his call for peace solutions in the Middle East and around the world.

RIGHTS: Italy Leads Campaign Against Death Penalty

The Italian government is leading a new campaign against the death penalty following the execution of Saddam Hussein.

AFRICA: Women Take Some Steps Ahead of the West

About half of the parliamentarians in Rwanda are women; many other African countries have more women in parliament than some western ones. It's taken some doing, as Gertrude Mongella knows - and as she tells IPS in an interview.

ENVIRONMENT: Saving Life on the Edges of the World

Communities that lived off fishing and forest produce on the Chiloe archipelago in the south of Chile for centuries have now begun to leave. They could deal with the difficult conditions, but the environment cannot sustain many of them any more.