Iranians in Iraqi Camp to Seek Refugee Status

In a development that could help resolve an eight-year-old diplomatic and humanitarian standoff, the Mujaheddin-e Khalq (MEK), an Iranian opposition group that has several thousand adherents at a military camp in Iraq, has agreed to allow residents to apply for refugee status and be interviewed individually by U.N. officials.

Corporate Profits Trumping Public Health

"There is a well-documented and shameful history of certain players in industry who... put public health at risk to protect their own profits," U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told world leaders Monday as they met to address the issue of non-communicable diseases at the 66th U.N. General Assembly.

NEPAL: Quake Strategy Needs a Jolt

Though Nepal was relatively unscathed by the earthquake that wreaked havoc in the adjacent areas of India this week, it showed up this Himalayan country’s inadequate disaster preparedness.

PAKISTAN: Flood Relief by Caste, Creed

With just the clothes on their backs, Moora Sanafdhano, 68, and his family of nine waded through waist-deep flood waters swirling through their village of Allah Ditto Leghari, saving themselves in the nick of time.

INDIA: ‘Missing Girls is About Femicide’

India has been ranked the fourth most dangerous country in the world for women, but the widespread practice of selectively aborting female foetuses may make it the most hostile to the female gender.

SOUTH AMERICA: Uneven Progress in Child Health

Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay have all made progress in the area of child health. But some are celebrating significant achievements while others are plodding slowly towards the goals adopted by the U.N. member countries in 2000.

NEPAL: No Brakes on Sex Trafficking

While a Nepalese campaign to stop human trafficking gains recognition by the White House and Hollywood, Nepal continues to be a prime source for sex trafficking, thanks to unsettled conditions created by a protracted political crisis.

Europe Confronts Its Borders

The influx of Tunisian migrants into Europe following the country’s ‘Jasmine Revolt’ has sparked a debate over the application of the passport-free Schengen Agreement.

Finding Opportunity in a World of Seven Billion

Next month, the world's population will reach seven billion people, a landmark that the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) is hailing in its drive to raise awareness about the need for global cooperation to solve issues of development.

BRAZIL: African Refugees in the Amazon

Wilson Nicolas, from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), was the first African refugee to find his way to Brazil's Amazon jungle region, and seems to have started a trend.

Unleashing the Power of Women and Girls

Kakenya Ntaiya was engaged at age five and would have been married by 13 if her mother had not insisted that she attend her small village school in Enoosaen, Kenya.

SRI LANKA: Catching Itself Young

When Sri Lanka extended the age of retirement for government workers from 55 to 57 years it defied criticism that the island’s public sector was overstaffed and needed serious downsizing.

Libyan Rebels Hound Black Refugees

The Libyan revolution has been devastating for 20-year-old Alybe Nally from Nigeria, as it has been for countless others from Africa seen by the rebels as Gaddafi loyalists. "When the rebels took over Tripoli two weeks ago they took my money, my mobile, my passport...All I have is what you see now," he says, pointing to his mismatched pair of sandals.

U.S.: Weighing in on “Generation 9/11”

The 10 years since Sep. 11, 2001 have offered scholars, politicians and the Millennial Generation, a group who was entering adolescence at the turn of the century, fodder for contention about just what the changes of the last decade mean for the younger generation.

Reproductive Health Security Empowers Women’s Choices

Each day, one thousand women die in childbirth and one million people become infected with sexually transmitted infections (STIs), including 7,000 cases of HIV. Yet these numbers are preventable, experts insist, when countries possess the resources and willpower to address and deal with them.

ISRAEL: Children Facing Deportation Find Friends

After Israel’s Interior Ministry attempted to deport the first migrant workers’ child educated in the Israeli school system, human rights groups are calling on the Israeli government to develop a clear immigration policy and an official protocol that will minimise the psychological impact of detaining and deporting young children.

U.S. Muslims Upbeat Despite Scrutiny Since 9/11

Despite increased public scrutiny since the 9/11 terrorist attacks and well-funded campaigns promoting Islamophobia, U.S. Muslims express a significantly higher level of satisfaction with their lives, their local communities, and the country's general direction than does the public at large, according to a major new survey released here Tuesday by the Pew Research Center.

Aiming a Kick at Homelessness

Loud bursts of cheering startled the throngs of tourists posing for pictures in front of the Eiffel Tower here last weekend.

Neglected Diseases Group Seeking Child-Friendly AIDS Drugs

A scientific alliance in which developing countries are playing a key role has taken on the challenge of producing paediatric AIDS drugs, an area that is no longer a priority for pharmaceutical companies because mother-to-child transmission of HIV has virtually been eliminated in the industrialised world.

AUSTRALIA: Refugee Centres Breed Mental Illness

Concern is growing for the mental health of thousands of people locked up indefinitely in this country’s immigration detention system.

U.N. Launches Campaign to Break Catch-22 of Statelessness

For the majority of the world’s population, citizenship is a fact of life, something so fundamental that the idea of not being citizen to any state seems unfathomable. Yet for 12 million people worldwide, ordinary life as most people expect it is impossible because they belong to no country and are thus deprived of basic rights.