Haitian Immigrant Street Peddlers Try to Get a Leg Up

Gaston Dorelus has little education, no vocational training, no extrinsic qualifications to make his way through life any easier.

Pakistan Poll Finds Widespread Disillusionment

The recent Wikileaks dump of war-related documents has brought little new to the debate over Washington's ongoing military involvement in Afghanistan, but allegations that Pakistan's intelligence services are aiding the Taliban has brought renewed attention to U.S. concerns over its reliance on Islamabad in battling Taliban and al Qaeda forces in Afghanistan.

MIGRATION-ECUADOR: Cubans Turn to Marriages of Convenience for Citizenship – Part 2

Cuban nationals can be found every day at the busy corner of Amazonas and Naciones Unidas avenues in the Ecuadorean capital, where the National Civil Registry Office is located.

MIGRATION-ECUADOR: Cubans Find Door Half Open – Part 1

Carlos sold his house, Juana got a divorce so she could remarry and obtain resident status, and Pedro bought a "letter of invitation" with 10 years of savings... These sorts of stories are common amongst Cubans anxious to make a new life in Ecuador.

Afro-Chileans Seek Recognition in Census

Concentrated mainly in the arid northern region of Arica y Parinacota, Chile's small black population is seeking formal recognition as an ethnic group and inclusion on the 2012 census form, to put an end to what they describe as "structural discrimination."

MIGRATION-PORTUGAL: On the Football Pitch, Everyone Is Equal

Football functions on so many levels. It can be big business, moving astronomical quantities of cash, with obscene salaries for owners, coaches and star players. And it can be a widely played sport, found in every park, street or vacant lot. And it can be the common ground for multicultural coexistence.

SIERRA LEONE: Defining New Role for Traditional Birth Attendants

Posseh Sesay will never be able to bear children again following a tragic birthing experience at the hands of her village traditional birth attendant (TBA).

PAKISTAN: Life At A Time Of Suicide Bombings

Like any other Friday morning, hordes of people flocked at the shrine of 11th-century Sufi saint, Hazrat Ali Hajveri, that is near Bhaati Gate inside Lahore’s walled city on Jul. 2. By that afternoon, a much larger crowd had gathered at the site, this time for the usual Friday prayers.

CHINA: Youngsters Rebel Against ‘Authoritarian’ Parenting

Fourteen years ago, Fang Xin declared war on her parents. Whatever they wanted of her, Fang, now 28, did the opposite. She refused to watch news broadcasts by the state’s China Central Television, or the annual Spring Festival Gala, with her father and mother. She would not eat meals with her family. When it came time for university, she ignored her parents’ wishes and attended a school far from her hometown. The latest battle was fought last year, when her parents wanted Fang to become a mother.

KENYA: Jury Still Out on Traditional Birth Attendants

The government of Kenya has been encouraging women to deliver in hospital. Home deliveries by traditional birth attendants are considered to be a major contributor to maternal deaths.

SRI LANKA: War Over, But Women Wage Battle For Survival

It was a typically hot, humid day in this eastern coastal village. The sun burned down from a cloudless sky, roasting the skin as an angry sea breeze swatted the faces of the few foolish enough to venture out onto the deserted main road that runs through town.

JAPAN: Critics Want Law on Foreign Trainees Scrapped, not Revised

The Japanese government may have revised the country’s laws in response to complaints that its system of hiring foreign trainees at lower wages is exploitative, but calls remain for the latter to be scrapped altogether.

BULGARIA: Refuge Can Get Worse Than Rejection

A protest to close down Busmantsi, a detention centre for undocumented migrants in Sofia, highlighted the obstacles faced by refugees and asylum- seekers in Bulgaria.

LATIN AMERICA: Prevention Is Weakest Link in AIDS Fight

Many Latin American countries have made strides in legislation and policies that promote sex education and health services for young people, which are essential for fighting AIDS. But implementation has been slow and often faces opposition, warn experts.

China’s Poor West Gets an Uncertain Push

China is stepping up its 10-year-long effort to develop its vast western regions, home to energy and mineral resources crucial to its future growth. So far, the campaign’s results have been mixed.

RIGHTS-BAHRAIN: Women Don’t Need to Accept Polygamy – Activists

In her 30s, Muza has been married for years but has managed to remain financially independent. In fact, she was even able to help build the home she has with her husband, using the money she earned as a teacher.

PAKISTAN: Depression, Poverty Make A Deadly Mix

She survived the nightmare, but three of her six children, as well as her husband, did not. In fact, Muzammil Akbar says, it was her husband Akbar Ali who had fed poison to their three eldest children before handing her a "handful of white tablets".

CAMBODIA: Informal Sex Trade Threatens to Undercut Gains in HIV

On a muggy evening, a handful of men in suits were quickly getting drunk in a beer garden here in the Cambodian capital. One man rested his hand on the thigh of a slender woman sitting uncomfortably in a short skirt.

SRI LANKA: New Tremors, Old Nightmares

Janoshini Maurasini shakes like a leaf each time the sea belches a thunderous roar. And the 29-year-old mother of two has good reason to be nervous: Maurasini only narrowly escaped with her life in the Indian Ocean tsunami on Dec. 26, 2004, which killed over 35,000 of her fellow Sri Lankans within minutes.

RIGHTS-CHINA: Migrants Are Badly Needed, But Get Little Support

Thirty-six-year-old Luo Fusheng left his hometown in China’s Jiangxi province a decade ago to look for work to help support his family. Unskilled and with limited education, Luo eventually ended up in the factory city of Shenzhen, more than 700 kilometres to the south, where he now works as a security guard.

HEALTH: To Fight AIDS, Fight Gender Inequality

Under the banner that gender inequality is one of the main drivers of the spread of AIDS, women from around the world are uniting to demand a stop to the epidemic among all females -- whether adults or girls.