PAKISTAN: Swat Valley’s Festival Speaks Up for Peace

The threats against officials and ordinary people alike have not stopped, with yet another suicide bomber sowing terror in the district’s main town just on Jul. 15.

RIGHTS-BURMA: Youngsters, Families Evade Recruitment into Armies

They are novices at a Buddhist monastery just outside Rangoon, but they are also young boys who will always find time for a friendly game of football.

Haiti’s Tent Camps Likely to Remain for Years

Six months after Haiti's devastating earthquake, U.N. aid agencies say they are entering the challenging phase of replacing the tents that are home to the estimated 1.5 million people who remain displaced.

COLOMBIA: Midwives Seek Legal Recognition, Respect

In Colombia, western medicine has nearly succeeded in pushing midwives -- "parteras" or "comadronas," as they are known in Spanish -- out of existence. But some tenacious practitioners are pushing for a law to formalise the role of midwife as a health worker.

THAILAND: For Transgenders, Identity Papers Are No Simple Matter

In New Zealand, where Sujinrat Prachathai enjoys resident status, she is a woman able to append ‘Mrs’ to her name to signify that she is married. Here in Thailand, however, she has to be addressed as ‘Mr’ since she is still considered male even though she underwent a sex-change operation years ago.

HAITI: Six Months On, Shelter Still a Main Priority

Six months ago Monday, an earthquake rocked the western hemisphere's poorest country, driving it deeper into poverty and burying it under its nascent infrastructure.

INDIA: ‘Green Cremation’ Gets A Second Look

Unmindful of the monsoons lashing the Dehradun area in the Himalayan foothills in northern India, Girdhari Singh returns from work daily with a headload of wood that he finds along the road, and stacks it to dry in the cattleshed.

AUSTRALIA: Apprehended Sex Tourists Just ‘Tip of the Iceberg’

The high-profile case of an accused Australian paedophile in India and the recent arrest of an Australian man on child sex charges in Thailand represent just the "tip of the iceberg" when it comes to Australians involved in child sex tourism in the Asia-Pacific, children’s rights advocates here say.

Controversy Dogs Brazil’s Racial Equality Law

The Statute of Racial Equality, soon to be signed into law in Brazil, is at the centre of a controversy between those who consider it a historical achievement, like the abolition of slavery in 1888, and those who see it as failing to satisfy the demands of the black movement.

Midwives vs. Doctors in U.S. Maternal Mortality Crisis

"I was baking a cake when my contractions were two minutes apart," Kristine says, her voice warm with memory, "not in a hospital, holding onto a bedside somewhere screaming."

HEALTH-PAKISTAN: Children’s Cancer A Hidden Crisis

Her husband works as a nurse in one of Pakistan’s most prestigious private hospitals, but when their two-year-old daughter Mary was diagnosed with leukaemia, Sadaf John could only be thankful that the Children’s Cancer Hospital (CCH) existed in this country.

Making 2010 a Turning Point for Women’s Health

As the international community readies to commemorate World Population Day Sunday, the United Nations is reviewing the state of the world's women - and how they stack up against the risks of maternal mortality and the lack of universal access to reproductive health.

INDIA: Kashmir Youth Fight – to Save the Environment

Now that the armed conflict between Indian security forces and Kashmiri militants has eased considerably, youngsters are coming out to fight a new threat – environmental degradation – that looms over this beautiful valley often termed ‘paradise on earth’.

THAILAND: Sexuality 101 Exhibit Says It Straight

Teenage boys gape at a coloured photograph of a vagina, while girls give embarrassed smiles as they watch a cartoon that showed penises 'talking' about masturbation. Young girls crowd around a display panel about love and relationships, as a boy embraces a female mannequin with all his might in order to measure the strength of his hug.

PAKISTAN: More Action, Less Words, Needed to Ease Population Bulge

While militancy, power outages and skyrocketing food prices hog the limelight in parliamentary and media discussions in Pakistan, health experts warn that it is a neglected issue – the population bulge – that will prove to be a more insidious problem.

RIGHTS-THAILAND: Imam’s Widow Takes on Legal System in South

She is better known for her cooking, her hospitality and her soft-spoken demeanour in this southern region torn apart by an insurgency. But now, 52- year-old Nima Kaseng is heading for a bigger, more public role – as a crusader for justice.

Swiss Knives Out for Migrants

The disputed 'black sheep' placards may soon return to Swiss streets. The country's Federal Council and parliament have validated a right-wing initiative calling for the automatic deportation of criminal foreigners.

AUSTRALIA: Hunger Far from Unknown in A Land of Plenty

Devina Celeste, 50, waits in a queue of about 40 people at the neighbourhood centre in the Australian inner-city suburb of Newtown for the only hot meal she will get on this cold winter night.

DEVELOPMENT-LAOS: Water Flows from Villagers’ Own Toil

With just 13.4 percent of the country’s 6.3 million people having access to piped water at present, Lao authorities would have to work more than double time if the rest of the population are to have clean and safe water within a decade.

SRI LANKA: After Decades of Bloodshed, Home Calls

For almost two decades, Athanayakemudiyanselage Punchibanda lived without hope of ever returning here to his native village.

CHINA: School Attacks Expose Quiet Crisis Around Mental Illness

When a distraught landlord wielding a kitchen cleaver stormed into a kindergarten classroom in south-east China’s Fujian province in May and killed several people, including children, it was the bloodiest of five recent attacks at schools across the country.