INDIA/PAKISTAN: Prisoner Repatriations Bring Hope

As the New Year dawns, the repatriation by India of 66 Pakistan nationals brings hope for hundreds of Pakistanis and Indians incarcerated in prisons across each other’s countries - and for peace between the South Asian neighbours.

RIGHTS-AUSTRALIA: ‘Prison-like’ Immigration Facility Open

Refugee rights organisations have criticised the Rudd government’s decision to hold suspected asylum seekers in a controversial detention centre on an isolated Australian island in the Indian Ocean.

AIDS-LATIN AMERICA: Neglect, Ageism Put Older People at Risk

AIDS prevention campaigns tend to target the young, who make up a large percentage of those infected with the disease. But experts in Latin America say that people in older age ranges with an increasingly active sex life are being neglected, and are at risk because of lack of information.

LABOUR-PHILIPPINES: Bleak New Year For Migrant Workers

Diovie Arcilla is happy to be home for Christmas. This Singapore-based computer programmer values being with her family and friends in the holiday season. But news that some of her colleagues have been retrenched is making Arcilla anxious.

RIGHTS-SRI LANKA: 'Do They Know It's Christmas?'

The eight rows of pews at St. Fatima’s church in Colombo were mostly empty despite the festive look from Christmas decorations.

CHILE: Best Christmas Gift – a New House, Built by New Friends

Before the volunteers showed up at her house, Pamela Peña was nervous. She was embarrassed for others to see the poverty that her family lived in. But once the work started, she relaxed and enjoyed the unexpected Christmas present.

CUBA: Close Encounter with a Hurricane

Coffee was ready, documents and files had been removed to a safe place, communications equipment was switched off and the optical system was secured. With nothing left to do but wait, Cuban lighthouse keeper Miguel Chacón climbed the 218 stairs to the tower of the Cape Lucrecia lighthouse and looked out to sea.

EUROPE: Swap Aid for Fewer Migrants, the French Way

Should the amount of aid that African countries receive from Europe be linked to their efforts to prevent their nationals moving to this continent?

VENEZUELA: “Children Can’t Even Play on Their Front Stoops”

Johana Bracamonte never had a chance to learn to read. She was just five years old the morning her uncle took her to kindergarten and they were both shot by thieves who stole his motorbike, in 23 de Enero, a shantytown on the west side of the Venezuelan capital.

Q&A: ''The One Goal is to End Homelessness''

The week-long Homeless World Cup football competition came to a dramatic climax here on Dec.7, with Afghanistan and Zambia, respectively, winning the men’s and women’s competitions in what was the sixth edition of the annual tournament. But while the competition provides players with the opportunity to represent their country and gives spectators a chance to appreciate some exhilarating street soccer, the Homeless World Cup’s president and co-founder, Mel Young, told IPS that ending homelessness is the real goal.

RIGHTS-NEPAL: ‘Maoists Slow to Return Seized Property’

Tej Bahadur Roila, a member of the Nepal army, is unable to return to his home in the Khotang district of Eastern Nepal because his property, seized by Maoist rebels in the middle of the decade-long civil war they waged against the monarchy, has not been returned.

EUROPE-RIGHTS: Starving Because They Cannot Settle

Fifteen migrants woke up Friday to the 25th day of their hunger strike in Crete's second largest municipality Hania. They all have been living and working in Hania for a long time.

SRI LANKA: No Calm After the Storm

The only good thing about tropical storm ‘Nisha’, that lashed northern Sri Lanka in the last week of November, was that it brought a lull to the fierce fighting between Tamil separatist rebels and the Sri Lankan army.

AUSTRALIA: Homeless World Cup – More Than Football

While the action has been fast and furious among the 56 teams competing in the 2008 Homeless World Cup - a football tournament in which homeless and marginalised people from around the world represent their respective nations - the problems associated with homelessness are never too far away.

MALAYSIA: Rights Champion Seeks Political Career

After winning a gruelling 13-year court battle to avoid being jailed on charges of maliciously publishing false news, Malaysia's best-known human rights champion seeks a political career to continue defending migrant workers and other vulnerable sections of society.

AUSTRALIA: Do More Regionally to Stop HIV/AIDS Gov’t Told

While HIV infection rates remain relatively low in Australia, the peak non-governmental organisation representing the country’s community-based response to HIV/AIDS wants the government to do more to fund prevention measures here and in the region to counter rising infection rates.

SRI LANKA: Floods, Fighting, Food Shortages Hit Trapped Tamils

Incessant rains and flooding in the Vanni, the Tamil rebel stronghold in northern Sri Lanka, are adding to the woes of at least 200,000 people stranded in intensified fighting between the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and the Sri Lankan army since mid-September.

RIGHTS-AUSTRALIA: Abortion Decriminalised But Stays Controversial

While pro-choice groups have welcomed the recent decriminalisation of abortion in Victoria - Australia’s second most-populous state, where around 20,000 abortions are believed to be performed annually - anti-abortionists have vowed to continue opposing termination of pregnancies.

INDONESIA: Quota Ensures More Women Candidates in 2009 Polls

After 20 years as an activist, in which she campaigned to shape social and economic policy in Indonesia, Binny Buchori is setting her sights on a new career - as a politician.

SRI LANKA: Gov't Celebrates Battle Gains in Tamil Areas

Sri Lankan national flags hoisted at important locations and posters depicting army offensives against the Tamil rebels are part of week-long celebrations ordered by the government of President Mahinda Rajapakse to mark its latest battlefield victories in the north of the island.

ENVIRONMENT-BURMA: Conflict Threatens Karen Biodiversity

On top of 60 years of military occupation, the Karen people of Burma are now facing severe impairment of their environmental and cultural foundations, say activists.