SRI LANKA: Domestics Court Risks, Defying Age Bar

Sri Lanka has raised the age requirement for women wanting to leave the country to work as domestics abroad, but recruitment agents say this won’t prevent younger women from joining the exodus.

Migrants’ Strike Tests Greek Govt

A hunger strike by migrants is emerging as a test case for how far migrants can go to fight for rights, and how far the government can go to clamp down on them.

Q&A: Meeting a World of Seven Billion with Optimism

Before the end of 2011 there will be more humans on earth than in all of the planet's 4.5-billion-year history. As the world steels itself to support its seven billion-strong population, Dr. Babatunde Osotimehin, the new executive director of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), greets the impending challenges with gusto.

Central America Raises Its Voice in Defence of Its Migrants

Spiralling violence against Central American migrants in Mexico has prompted legal reforms, diplomatic actions, and the creation of new mechanisms to protect citizens in this region.

Khmer Rouge Leaders Seek Release Before Trial

Standing in an air-conditioned courtroom on the outskirts of the Cambodian capital, an aging former Khmer Rouge figure accused of genocide offered few words as he asked for his release.

Dams Threaten Aboriginal Tribe

Over the years, the Kadars, a dwindling aboriginal tribe who live on the borders of the southern Indian states of Kerala and Tamil Nadu, have survived pestilences, extreme exploitation and even mass sterilisations. But a new government plan to build a hydroelectric dam across the Chalakudy River would have been the death knell for the group who now number about 1,500.

Global Muslim Population Growing but Slowing

The world's Muslim population will increase by 35 percent in the next 20 years, according to new estimates by the Pew Research Center's Forum on Religion and Public Life.

JAPAN: New Law May Protect Children from Abusive Parents

For years, Toshikazu Takahashi, director of the sixty-year-old St. Francis Children’s Home child care facility, has grappled with the difficult of issue of protecting battered children from their abusive parents.

SRI LANKA: East Reels Under Triple Whammy

The name Mawilaru will be indelibly linked to the history of over 25 years of civil strife in Sri Lanka, especially its bloody end. It was here that the final phase of the war was triggered in June 2006.

AFPAK: Polio Rises With Border Flows

Pakistan became the world’s top polio-endemic country in 2010 and is now the biggest source of the polio virus to countries declared polio-free many years ago. Due to the unrestricted movement of children along the long and porous Afghanistan-Pakistan border, both countries have begun to put in place a joint strategy to stem the tide of the ailment.

ENVIRONMENT: Smugglers Axing Kashmir Forests

During the summer of 2010 Kashmir saw one of the worst face-offs between pro-freedom Kashmiri youth and law enforcement agencies. Smugglers used the unrest surrounding these outbreaks to conceal their steady ramping up of the black market timber trade, at times with complicity of authorities.

PHILIPPINES: ‘Wanted, Full-Time Mothers’

It’s definitely not your typical job advertisement. "Wanted: Mothers; must be mature, strong and stable, self-confident, humorous and know how to cook; must have a positive and cheerful attitude towards life; must be willing to work as a full-time mother for the long term."

Cracking the Donor Discourse on Haiti

In her remarks last week to the president of the U.N. Security Council on the first anniversary of Haiti's earthquake, U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice called for a free and fair election that reflected the views of Haitian voters, applauded the work of the U.N. Stabilisation Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH), and declared that the "prospects for rebuilding Haiti depend upon maintaining a secure environment and creating jobs for Haitians".

Sweden Slammed Over Iraqi Deportations

Both the United Nations and Amnesty International have criticized Sweden for its latest expulsion of Iraqi migrants who fled their home country to seek shelter in the European nation, citing concerns that violence in Iraq continues to threaten the lives of deported migrants.

SRI LANKA: Extreme Weather Changes Could Follow Floods

Weather experts warned Sri Lankan to be prepared for extreme weather changes with hardly any notice following devastating floods here that have affected over one million people.

PAKISTAN: Militancy Takes On a Female Face

On December 25, a female suicide bomber, not more than 18 years of age, blew herself up killing at least 47 people and injuring 105 others.

PHILIPPINES: Designing Defence Against Climate Change

As the impact of climate change worsens around the globe, a disaster-resilient village is poised to be a solution for urban poor battling the constant floods and typhoons that hit the Philippines.

MALAYSIA: Muslim Gay Faces Govt Wrath

Muslim engineer Azman Ismail has sparked a huge storm of criticism, invited official censure and even death threats by going on YouTube.com and confessing that he is a gay.

MIGRATION: Stateless in Calais

In September 2009 French police bulldozed the migrant encampment at Sangatte near Calais, inhabited by hundreds of mostly Afghan asylum seekers seeking to reach the United Kingdom. The destruction of the Sangatte ‘jungle’ was carried out in the full glare of publicity, and the French and UK governments hailed it as a major blow against illegal immigration.

INDIA: Smaller States Demand Self-Rule

In the Himalayan Mountains of eastern India’s Darjeeling locals are coping with the economic fallout of tourists cancelling their holiday plans in the area.

AFPAK: People Turning Against Taliban

The Taliban once regarded as true jihadists here are rapidly losing popularity in response to their ongoing targeting of mosques, schools and innocent people.