Q&A: "There Has Been Xenophobia for a Long Time in This Country"

Young adults in South Africa increasingly feel government has let them down. They lament lack of access to employment opportunities, poverty and many have pretty much lost hope that their situation will improve within the next decade.

CHAD: European Force Sticks to Mandate Under Early Pressure

The European Union’s first major overseas military deployment - to the impoverished central African nation of Chad - is caught in a war of words between the country’s president and tenacious rebel groups operating on Chad’s arid border with Sudan.

POPULATION: Iraq Still a Major Source of Refugees in 2007

Despite a marked reduction in violence due in part to more aggressive U.S. counter-insurgency efforts in 2007, Iraq was the biggest source of the world's newest refugees for the third year in a row, according to the latest annual report of the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI) released here Thursday.

BRAZIL-JAPAN: One Hundred Years of Migration

One hundred years ago, 781 Japanese immigrants arrived at the Brazilian port of Santos on the steamship Kasato Maru, marking the start of a labour flow that gave rise to the ethnic group with the highest levels of education and per capita income in Brazil - a migration that reversed direction in the 1980s.

RIGHTS-EUROPE: Parliament Votes Jail for Asylum-Seekers

In what has been described as one of the European Union's "darkest days", the European parliament has voted to allow rejected asylum-seekers be detained for up to 18 months before being deported.

SOMALIA: Dire Situation for Internally Displaced

The United Nations estimates that well over 700,000 people have fled their homes in the Somali capital Mogadishu since clashes between insurgents and Ethiopian forces backing Somali government troops began in Mogadishu in February 2007.

MIGRATION: Int’l Community Failing Iraqi Refugees

The international community, especially the United States, has depicted a "false picture of the security situation" in Iraq in order to encourage refugees to return to a country where the situation is still "too dire", said Amnesty International, a prestigious London-based rights group, in a statement Friday.

NEPAL: Education Far More than ABCs – Experts

Far more than just the learning of ABCs and 123s, education should be playing a transformative role in children’s lives if it is to ensure them a better and more ‘equal’ and gender-responsive future.

NEPAL: Gender Inequality in Education Has Deep Roots

A shortage of female teachers, lack of proper training, inadequate delivery of services and indifferent attitudes combine to add to gender inequality in education in this small Himalayan nation.

RIGHTS-SOUTHERN AFRICA: Xenophobia Impacts on Mozambique

A month ago, 47-year-old Catarina Manungo was the owner of a two-bedroom house in Boksburg, where she lived with her four children and a grand-daughter. A few short weeks later, Manungo and her two youngest children find themselves living in a tent in the Maputo neighbourhood of Matola Garre.

ETHIOPIA: Western Allies Ignoring Gov’t Abuses, Report Says

Since a battle last year against rebels in eastern Ethiopia's Somali Region, Ethiopia's government and armed forces have been committing war crimes and crimes against humanity by subjecting ethnic Somali nomads to executions, torture and rape, according to a Human Rights Watch (HRW) report released Thursday.

EDUCATION-ASIA: Girls Should Go to School, Stay There

It is not enough that girls go to school - they must also remain in school and complete their education, a goal that educators, policymakers and communities all need to brush up on.

UGANDA: Hopes For Final Peace Falter

When he was 10 years old, Alfred Bogomin fled Paicho village in northern Uganda along with his family to escape from the Lord's Resistance Army rebels. After 20 years in a displaced persons camp, he returned to his ancestral home last month.

WOMEN-MEDIA: Stuck at the Starting Gate

"We should not be all that surprised that we are stalled," says Jane Ransom, executive director of the International Women's Media Foundation (IWMF), referring to the absence of women leaders in media organisations.

EUROPE: No Asylum, Now Go To Jail

Asylum-seekers whose bid to live in the European Union has been rejected could be detained for up to 18 months under a new law approved by the bloc's 27 governments.

WOMEN-MEDIA: Conspicuous By Their Absence

Observe any summit picture - you won't find many women. The mystery of female underrepresentation in the echelons of power persists: after so many decades of the feminist movement, why are women at the helm scarce? A look at the media sector may provide some answers.

RIGHTS-INDIA: State-Sponsored Repression, Say Human Rights Activists

The People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), a 32-year-old Indian human- rights group, has decried India’s judiciary for refusing bail to ‘jungle doctor’ and human rights activist Binayak Sen. Sen is widely-respected for his 30 years of healthcare work among tribals in the central Indian State of Chhattisgarh, and has criticised the State for the mass-eviction of thousands of tribal villagers.

PERU: Upbeat Poverty Stats Questioned

The Peruvian government has announced that poverty fell by 5.2 percent in a year and forecasts that by 2015, less than 10 percent of the population will be below the poverty line. But experts and provincial governors cast doubt on these figures, given the unmet basic needs of peasant families.

RIGHTS-AFRICA: Security Council Urged to Protect Civilians

As diplomats prepare to leave for Africa where the U.N. Security Council is due to meet next week, calls from activists are growing for strong international action to address the worsening human rights situation in many parts of the continent.

PAKISTAN: Quake Orphans Still Dependent on Charity, NGOs

Thousands of children orphaned by the earthquake that hit northern Pakistan in October 2005, leaving 85,000 people dead, continue to be dependent on charity and support provide by donors and non-government organisations (NGOs).

POPULATION-CHINA: Quake Shakes One-Child Policy

Almond-shaped eyes; a young face of poignant beauty reminiscent of Hu Die - the Shanghai film star of yesteryears. The impression is helped by the stark, retro-like monochrome photo. But the leap of imagination is clipped almost immediately by the black ribbon draped around the photo and the grieving man clutching it.