CAMBODIA: EU, India Trade Deal Could Hurt Access to Anti-Retrovirals

Every day, twice a day for the last seven years, Men Thol has swallowed a set of pills that gives him the strength to lead a normal life.

CHINA: As Poverty and Privilege Clash, Social Tensions Rise

In late October, a speeding Volkswagen struck two students as they roller skated on the grounds of Hebei University, leaving them motionless in a pool of blood. Security guards intercepted the driver as he attempted to flee, but he refused to leave the car. "Sue me if you dare," he warned, "my father is Li Gang!"

GREECE: The Centre Is Falling Apart

The experience of walking through Omonia Square in downtown Athens can send shivers down the spine of even the calmest of visitors. In recent months, increased incidents of street crime, drug trafficking, and prostitution have turned the square into a site many citizens go to lengths to avoid.

AFGHANISTAN: For HIV Care, Cross Over to Pakistan

After testing positive for HIV, which caused him to be deported from the United Arab Emirates, Nazarullah probably found little reason to feel fortunate.

PHILIPPINES: Students Turn Trash into Tuition

Most people would not think twice about throwing out old plastic bags, empty soda cans, scrap metal and used shampoo bottles. But for the students of Cavite Institute in the Philippines, trash like these have become their ticket out of poverty.

JAPAN: More Economic Woes, More Violence At Home

Japan’s prolonged economic woes seem to have helped worsen the country’s problem with domestic violence.

PAKISTAN: Too Many Nets, Too Little Fish

The last time Moazzam Khan saw sawfish in the Arabian Sea was in 1984. "At one time, salted and dried fish formed a large part of our exports," recalls Khan, director general of the Karachi Fisheries Department. "In the last 30 years, there may be other marine life that may have vanished of which we may not be aware."

SRI LANKA: Doctors Put Life During Conflict Under Microscope

During the last phase of Sri Lanka’s civil war in 2008, information on the intensified fighting had slowed to a trickle. But in their November 2010 submissions to a government commission looking into the final days of the conflict, a group of doctors who served in the war zone have shed light on living conditions that were "not fit for even animals".

RELIGION-CHINA: Buddhism Enjoys A Revival

Quan Zhenyuan discovered Buddhism by accident. After the owner of a vegetarian restaurant here in the Chinese capital gave her a book about the religion, she became hooked. Today, Quan is one of a growing number of urban Chinese who turn to Buddhism for spiritual fulfillment.

MIGRATION: Swiss Vote In an ‘Illegal Law’

Just a year after banning the construction of minarets, Swiss voters have approved a right-wing initiative demanding the automatic expulsion of criminal foreigners. The initiative violates international law.

PAKISTAN: Death Sentence Revives Calls to Scrap Blasphemy Laws

What began as altercation among farm workers has become a full-blown nightmare for Pakistani mother Asia Bibi, one that points to her being led to the gallows.

Migrant Population on Track to Hit 400 Million

The population of migrants worldwide could rise above 400 million by 2050 if present rates of growth continue, says a report by the International Organisation for Migration released Monday.

MADAGASCAR: New Livelihoods to Protect A River’s Life

The Nosivolo River has the greatest concentration of freshwater fish species in Madagascar. Strengthening protection of the river's biodiversity has involved transforming the livelihoods of local people.

RIGHTS-PAKISTAN: For Women, Cyber Crimes Are All Too Real

The Grade 10 student was first drugged, and then four men raped her. The group then apparently tried to extort money from her family. When the family filed a complaint with the police instead, the extortionists in October then posted a cellphone video of her whole ordeal on the Internet.

CHINA: ‘Hukou’ Registration System Trips Over Inequity

Yu Mengxiang is a 24-year-old office manager at a foreign company in Beijing. Although he looks and acts like a typical urban male, his household registration – or ‘hukou’ – is in a village in north-east Liaoning province, which means he isn’t entitled to government benefits in the capital. Bucking conventional wisdom, he doesn’t want any.

RIGHTS-AUSTRALIA: In Immigration Detention, Life Is Uncertainty

Mohsen Soltany Zand knows life inside Australia’s immigration detention system. Now an Australian citizen, Zand sought political asylum here after fleeing Iran in the late 1990s.

PHILIPPINES: Welcome to the Women-Friendly Jail

"I was shocked when I saw them," says 18-year-old detainee Chona (not her real name) of the first time she saw the duplex-style bungalows painted in pastel colours that make up her ‘home’.

As U.N. Peace Missions Multiply, Civilians See Disconnect

Many United Nations peacekeepers are not only failing to meet the needs of civilians, but they are also perceived as unresponsive once civilians convey their needs, says a new report by Oxfam International.

ECUADOR: Native People Stand Up to Be Counted in Census

The office is chaotic. Huge piles of T-shirts and boxes of ballpoint pens are piled high on desks where indigenous men and women are busy packing these articles, together with placards, leaflets and fliers, at the headquarters of their National Commission on Statistics.

NEPAL: School Initiative Making the Grade

Four years ago, Ramita Bhujel was a bit reluctant to go back her school after a year's absence. This Grade 4 student of Shree Saraswati Secondary School here had been down with pneumonia, failed to clear her nursery exams and as a consequence stayed at home.

TAIWAN: Debate Far from Over On Decriminalisation of Sex Trade

The Taiwanese government’s plans to partially decriminalise the sex trade has revived deep divisions within society, including between advocacy groups who stress the need for equal treatment and ‘autonomy’ for sex workers and those worried about the impact of such a move on human trafficking and child prostitution.