DEVELOPMENT-CAMBODIA: Conflicts Simmer Over Land Concessions

When villagers in Kandal province near the Cambodian capital blocked National Road 2 in early April, it was just the latest protest by rural villagers angered by yet another alleged land grab.

CHINA: Women Want to Hold Up the Half the Sky – in Style

For decades, women have been "holding up half the sky in China," as the late Chairman Mao Zedong had exhorted them to do. But in recent years, a growing number of Chinese women want to do so with loads of charm and more than a hint of the social graces.

RIGHTS-AUSTRALIA: Africans Target of Racism, Harassment by Police

The police "picked me up, they put me in the back of the car. Then they took me to (locality withheld) and beat (expletive) me, and they left me there," a young person of African background said in a new study into the treatment of youths of African background by Australian police in Melbourne.

HAITI: Displaced Fear Expulsion from Makeshift Camps

For decades, the Saint Louis de Gonzague school has groomed some of Haiti's most elite political players. Francois Duvalier, the iron-fisted dictator who ruled Haiti for 14 years, sent his son to the school. About 1,500 children of Haiti's wealthiest class attend each year.

RIGHTS-NEPAL: Laws Have Changed, Mindsets Haven’t

When Ranjit Thapa applied for citizenship by descent through his mother at the Kathmandu District Administration Office, little did he know that the road ahead was fraught with obstacles.

HEALTH: Putting the Focus on Cities

The world's public health policy-makers should focus on urban health problems, since for the last three years the majority of the planet's population is living in cities, World Health Organisation (WHO) experts say.

U.S.: Groups Hail Refugee Protection Act

Immigrants' rights activists are virtually unanimous in their endorsement of proposed legislation that would change decades of U.S. asylum practices. But proponents of the legislation fear it may never find its way out of the U.S. Senate to the president's desk.

HEALTH-INDIA: Trained Birth Attendants Save Rural Mothers’ Lives

It was her fourth unplanned pregnancy, but Sani Jani still made it a point to have a monthly checkup at the nearest primary health centre – even if she always had to walk two kilometres to get there.

HEALTH-CHINA: Wave of Anger Rises Over Vaccine Scandal

Shortly after Liu Yan’s four-year-old son, Liu Yi, was bitten by a dog, he did what any responsible parent would do: took his child to the hospital for a vaccination. Two weeks later, after the fourth injection, Liu Yi became violently ill.

RIGHTS-FIJI: Law Enforcement Approach to Sex Work Falls Short

Two months after a new anti-prostitution law took effect, taxi driver Shiu Kumar says he sees fewer sex workers along Victoria Parade, the centre of Suva’s nightlife. But while this has had a negative effect on his nighttime fares, he is nevertheless happy about the law.

RIGHTS-SWITZERLAND: Calls to End Forced Deportations Follow Custodial Death

Human rights organisations have been demanding an independent inquiry into the death of a Nigerian asylum seeker died while being deported and a stop to all forced repatriations.

RIGHTS-VIETNAM: Law Leads Two Women Leaders to Different Worlds

Both chose the legal profession for their career path, and both are bent on fighting for more rights for the people. But the fortunes of Vietnamese women lawyers Tran Thi Quoc Khan and Le Thi Cong Nhan cannot be more different: One enjoys prominence in the National Assembly, while the other was just recently released from jail.

DEVELOPMENT: Mega-Inequality in Urban Mega-Regions

Basic services that are collapsing or non-existent, overcrowding, pollution: these are big-city problems that are compounded in developing countries by poverty and inequality.

URUGUAY: Improving Conditions for Waste Pickers

"The time will come when 80 percent of the raw material used by industry in Uruguay will be recycled waste products," Marcelo Conde, a 40-year-old garbage sorter who has been digging through trash for recyclables "for as long as I can remember," says with some pride.

HAITI: Watching the Sky with Dread

With the spring rains and hurricane season just around the corner in Haiti, some 600,000 people are still living in camps, many in areas prone to flooding. And plans to provide solutions for the survivors of the devastating Jan. 12 earthquake are moving forward slowly.

SRI LANKA: First Political Manifesto for Women Gets Good Reviews

Political manifestos are often met with cynicism and even ridicule, but Sri Lanka’s first such manifesto for women is proving an exception to the rule as rights activists laud its recent launch.

RIGHTS-AUSTRALIA: Indigenous Groups Still Say No to Gov’t ‘Help’

"We don’t want to have any part of this. We want to move out of it so we have a bit of freedom and be able to determine our own future," says Richard Downs, an elder of the Alyawarra people of central Australia.

LAOS: Residents Fret Over Parched Mekong River

Like many residents of this slow-paced Lao capital, graduate student Packno usually enjoys meeting up with her family and friends for dinner at any of the restaurants along the Mekong River.

BAHRAIN: Debate on Proposed Alcohol Ban Far From Over

Legislators say it would encourage more Islamic behaviour and cure social ills, but critics say a complete ban by Bahrain on selling alcohol would mean big losses in tax revenues and lead to a black market in liquor.

RIGHTS-PAKISTAN: Woman Politician Wins Even by Losing

Earnestness is still on her sunburnt face as she faces throngs of people just days after her defeat. Indeed, even as threats continue to come her way, Mai Jori has not given up on her dreams to help empower the women from her region and vows to contest the forthcoming local bodies’ elections.

POLITICS-SRI LANKA: Scepticism Greets Human Rights Plan

Pressured by the west and international groups over its human right record, the Sri Lankan government is close to finalising a roadmap on safeguarding civil and political liberties.