EDUCATION-SOUTH AFRICA: ‘We Need All Hands on Deck to Solve The Crisis’

Teachers who are not trained properly, teacher strikes and HIV/AIDS are taking a huge toll on the educational system in South Africa.

SUDAN: Some Southerners Have Hope For Unity By 2011

Citizens from Sudan’s southern region, long caught in a power struggle with their country’s northern-controlled government, are looking with a mixture of hope and uncertainty to 2011 when they will vote in a referendum on whether or not the south will remain part of Sudan.

EDUCATION-ZIMBABWE: Getting Harder To Keep Children In School

Alois Mufundisi, a media professional, earns 200 million Zimbabwean dollars, about 50 U.S. dollars on the thriving parallel market.

PERU: Intercultural University Scores Poorly on Equality

Peru’s only intercultural university was established in the country’s Amazon jungle region to provide higher education for indigenous people, thanks to a concerted struggle by native leaders. Yet only 40 percent of the students are actually from indigenous communities, while the majority are "mestizos" (people of mixed-race) from urban areas.

SPAIN: Alliance of Civilisations Gets Off to an Auspicious Start

The First Forum of the Alliance of Civilisations sponsored by Turkey and Spain concluded in Madrid with concrete commitments, including generous funding, and the announcement that the second forum will be held in Turkey in 2009.

ENVIRONMENT-NIGERIA: As E-Waste Dump, Lagos Imperils People

Nigeria’s commercial capital is arguably one of the largest dumps for obsolete electronic items otherwise called e-wastes.

Q&A: ‘We Want to Prepare Voters For the Election and the Post-Election Scenario’

"If you run an inherently unfair election it will lead to political unrest in a post- election scenario," Lovemore Madhuku, chairman of the National Constitutional Assembly (NCA) told IPS.

RIGHTS-RWANDA: Children of the Genocide Struggle to Cope

What Gilbert Nshimyumukiza remembers most about the Rwandan genocide is that it started to rain as he and his brothers tried to carry his mortally wounded father back into their house.

EDUCATION-SWAZILAND: Urban Youth Slipping Through The Cracks

As the new school year begins here many destitute or orphaned children are in need of assistance to pay for their educations. An unknown number of urban youngsters, however, are slipping through the social welfare net.

LATIN AMERICA: Young People on the Fringes of Society

Seven million young Brazilians and nearly 800,000 youngsters in Argentina swell the ranks of a veritable army of Latin American youths who neither work nor study - a phenomenon that threatens to continue reproducing poverty unless effective measures are urgently taken to integrate them in society, say experts.

ARGENTINA: Mixed Marks for Educational System

Successive economic and social crises in Argentina have left their mark on the public education system, which since the late 19th century has been a key factor of social integration and mobility in this South American country.

EDUCATION-US: Seminole School Thriving In Florida

Elementary school children in U.S. public schools are preparing for their winter holiday vacations, but at a charter school here on the Seminole Indian Tribe of Florida’s Brighton Reservation, the children are enjoying their education so much that some of them want to keep on attending classes throughout the holidays.

BRAZIL: Films, Music as Damage Control in Prisons

Cultural activities in Brazilian jails these days include film screenings, live bands and libraries with shelves packed with books - part of an attempt to combat the consequences of the appalling living conditions in prison.

Q&A: Righting Past Wrongs – Defending the Right to Sexual Diversity in Cuba

Cuban sexologist Mariela Castro shocked the world, and a good number of people in Cuba, this year when she announced a proposed legal reform in this socialist Caribbean island nation which would include the full recognition of the rights of gays, lesbians, transsexuals, transvestites and transgender persons.

LATIN AMERICA: The Hand that Rocks the Cradle… Forfeits Equal Pay

To avoid reproducing gender inequality, governments should implement integrated policies that recognise, for instance, the unpaid work done by women, according to an ECLAC report on the fulfilment of the third Millennium Development Goal (MDG).

HEALTH: South Joins Hands to Reach Child MDGs

The U.N. children's agency UNICEF says that increased cooperation among developing countries is benefiting the lives of poor children around the world, particularly in the critical first months of life.

LATIN AMERICA: Prizes for Communities Fighting Exclusion

They work in the deep heartland of Brazil, or in urban slums. They all seek social inclusion, and their starting point is the bottom of the social ladder, with people who have a wide experience of life, contrasting with their short years.

IRAQ: Education Becomes the New Casualty in Baquba

The alarming security situation in Diyala province north of Baghdad has killed off much of the education system.

CUBA: (Some) Men Renounce Violence Against Women

Orlando Berrios, 53, works over eight hours a day as a barber in the Párraga district in the Cuban capital, and shares household tasks with his wife, to the astonishment of their neighbours, who regard him as an "odd character."

GUATEMALA: Teaching With Two Voices

In the Xepanil village school in Santa Apolonia, to the west of the Guatemalan capital, 20 children are learning both Spanish and the Mayan indigenous language Kaqchikel. Their teacher, Marta Lidia Rodríguez, one of thousands of bilingual education teachers in this country today, walks an hour a day to get to the school.

POLITICS-US: Peace Group Barred From Florida Schools

Public school districts in two Florida counties are refusing to allow members of a peace organisation to counter the presence of military recruiters by talking with high school students about options other than joining the service, according to a spokesperson for the group.