GUATEMALA: A Tax Code by and for the Oligarchs?

Taxation and government spending are the targets of a new report on Guatemala that argues the government is failing in its fiscal commitments to food, health and education.

POLITICS: Thai-Cambodia Tension Gives Rise to Schools with Bunkers

Children at the largest school in this village close to the Thai-Cambodian border have a new regimen to follow besides books and sports. They have drills, practising evacuation, in case their school comes under an artillery attack.

SOUTH SUDAN: Media Give Us a Fair Deal – Women

The guns have gone silent – except for sporadic conflict in parts of the vast South Sudan region, such as the Eastern Equatoria State. It may not be the absolute end of the conflict in the region, but it is a reason for renewed hope.

Q&A: “What is Important is to Give Equal Opportunity” – Part 2

Although women have long made major contributions to science, their efforts have often been overlooked. For the past 12 years, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) has teamed up with cosmetics giant L'Oréal to highlight the achievements of female scientists.

GENDER: Women in Science Face Discrimination in India – Part 1

Just 10 of the 443 Indian scientists who received the prestigious Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar (SSB) award in the last 50 years were women.

HEALTH-EGYPT: Over the Top With Anti-Swine Flu Steps

As authorities consider suspending a whole academic year to check the spread of swine flu among school children there is a feeling that measures to contain the H1N1 virus - known to be less dangerous than the one responsible for seasonal flu - are going over the top.

EDUCATION: Foreign Students Flock Back to U.S

The number of international students attending colleges and universities in the United States has reached an all-time high of 671,616, largely bolstered by an increasing number of undergraduate students from China, while U.S. students are also studying abroad in higher numbers.

LATIN AMERICA: Community-Based Social Innovation Wins Prizes

Community control of public funds will no longer be just an effective local idea, put into practice by social activists and community leaders in a town in southern Brazil. Now that it has won first prize in ECLAC's fifth Social Innovation Contest, it is likely to spread throughout Latin America.

POLITICS-NAMIBIA: The Struggle Does So Not Continue

They are called the "born frees", the children of Namibia’s Independence, and they will vote for the first time this month. Struggle credentials mean zip to them, and they have a serious beef with politicians.

MIDEAST: Gaza Graduates Search for Vitamin W

"We fast a long time," says Gaza graduate Mona Ismail, 23. "Only to break our fast on a piece of onion."

PAKISTAN: Military Vs Militancy Does Not Equal Peace

As militant attacks in Pakistan continue unabated, there are increasing calls for the government to rethink its strategy—and look deep within.

ARGENTINA: ‘Grandma, Will You Read to Me?’

"Moving," "rewarding," "therapeutic" are some of the terms used to describe their volunteer work by some of the women taking part in the Storytelling Grandmothers Programme aimed at awakening a love of reading among youngsters from poor families in Argentina.

SIERRA LEONE: Claims Presidency Interferes with Judiciary

It may be seven years after the country’s civil war, but Sierra Leone is still battling to obtain an independent judiciary.

Q&A: It’s Time Students Learned Beyond the Classroom

An increasing number of universities and colleges across Asia today are running a programme called "service-learning," a teaching and learning strategy that has become synonymous with precisely what its name stands for.

SWEDEN: ‘Freemovers’ Get Trapped

After a spell of sleeping rough at the railway station, Farid has a roof over his head, by way of a small room he shares with five other students.

EDUCATION-URUGUAY: Literacy Starts at Home

"At first I was embarrassed and had a hard time getting involved, but then I started relaxing. I like it a lot, because it helps me share different things with my kids," says María José Jara, a young mother from a poor neighbourhood in this Uruguayan city, referring to an innovative and successful family literacy project.

HAITI: A Year After School Collapse, Parents Seek Justice

On the morning of Nov. 7, 2008 shortly after 10 a.m. as the second period was beginning, College La Promesse Evangelique, a three-storey cinderblock school in the Nerette neighbourhood of Petionville, fell in on itself.

LESOTHO: AIDS Orphans get Helping Hand

Fifteen-year-old Ntsebeng Tlokotsi* sighs with relief as she is given 140 dollars. Along with it she receives a bag of maize meal and cooking oil. It is a government handout, and she qualifies for this only because both her parents are dead.

RIGHTS: Palestinian Women Suffer as Israel Violates CEDAW

Palestinian women continue to suffer abuse and denial of basic human rights at the hands of Israeli settlers and soldiers in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

RIGHTS-MALAWI: Blame Game While Children Suffer

Every morning 12-year-old Thomson Genti and his seven-year-old brother, Chifundo, emerge dirty and wretched from the squalor of their hideout behind the crowded shops in the commercial town of Limbe. It is the start of a day of begging, beatings from the older street boys and insults from passers-by.

CHILE: Teen Pregnancy, a Problem That Won’t Go Away

Chile currently stands out for its spectacular progress in a number of health indicators, including maternal and child mortality and chronic malnutrition. But these successes obscure an acute social problem that refuses to yield: the steady rise in the number of teenage mothers.