DEVELOPMENT-UGANDA: Smaller Families, Manlier Men

For Ugandan men, the equation is often a simple one: an abundance of children equals virility and security. This deeply rooted belief has frightening implications, however. According to the Uganda Bureau of Statistics, the population of the East African country - now 31 million - will exceed 36 million by 2015, and is projected to reach 54 million in 2025.

DEVELOPMENT: Towards a New and Improved Green Revolution

As food prices soar and hundreds of millions go hungry, experts from around the world will this week present a new approach for ensuring food security, at the intergovernmental plenary for the International Assessment of Agricultural Science and Technology for Development (IAASTD). The Apr. 7-12 conference is taking place in South Africa's commercial hub, Johannesburg, and will be attended by representatives of an estimated 60 governments.

DEVELOPMENT: U.N. Poverty Goals Face New Threats

The U.N.'s Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), aimed primarily at reducing poverty, hunger, disease and illiteracy, are being undermined by a rash of new problems threatening to cripple the ongoing efforts by developing nations to reach their targets by 2015.

NEPAL: Tibetans Warned of Deportation to China

When King Gyanendra staged his military-backed coup in February 2005, Nepal’s political parties - including the then outlawed Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) - formed an alliance that successfully opposed the monarch's assault on civil liberties.

MIGRATION: Brazilians Start Heading to Spain Instead of Portugal

Portugal’s economic crisis and extremely strict border policing, and the availability of cheaper flights from South America to Madrid, are the main reasons for the increasing number of Brazilians choosing to emigrate to Spain instead of the country with which they share cultural and language ties.

IRAQ: Divided Arabs Deliver Little

The Arab summit held in Damascus over this weekend has convinced many Iraqis that Arab leaders do not speak for them.

EUROPE: ‘Supporting a Dictator in Chad’

The European Union has been accused of "supporting a dictator" by deploying a military mission to Chad that is largely comprised of troops from France, the country's former colonial master.

RIGHTS-PAKISTAN: Refugees Fear Return to Afghanistan

The countdown has begun for Afghan refugees to vacate the Jalozai camp, 35 km east of this border city in Pakistan.

AFGHANISTAN: Terrified Civilians Flee NATO Bombings

Jumakhan Said Muhammad was working on his land when he first heard the planes. "I looked up," the farmer from Musa Qala, in the southern Helmand province, says. "Suddenly a plane flew by and I saw smoke rising from my house, which was down the road."

BRAZIL-SPAIN: This Country Reserves the Right of Admission

Increasing numbers of Brazilians are being refused entry at Spanish airports, sometimes in humiliating fashion, as the influx of Brazilian immigrants to Europe grows, and the deportations are causing diplomatic friction between the two countries.

IRAQ: Syria Now Home to a Million ‘Pillow Drivers’

More than a million Iraqis in Syria cannot find work. For their idleness, they have come to be called the "pillow drivers".

AUSTRALIA: Mock Refugee Camp Brings Home Grim Realities

Moving aggressively before the locked wire gate, the border guards used large sticks to keep the refugees in check. Eventually, with the aid of bribes, the participants were allowed to cross the border in order to seek refuge in the camp on the other side.

MIGRATION: Canada to Double Iraqi Refugee Quota

Canada's Minister of Citizenship and Immigration Diane Finley announced this week that Canada will more than double the number of refugees it receives this year from Iraq, accepting 1,800 to 2,000 refugees, up from 900 in 2007.

RIGHTS-ANGOLA: Free Rein for Human Traffickers

There is little awareness on the problem of trafficking in persons, mainly women and children, in Angola, and no laws for cracking down on the growing phenomenon.

POLITICS-KENYA: An Intractable Land Dispute Grinds On

More than a week after the launch of an army operation to flush out the Sabaot Land Defence Force (SLDF) in Mount Elgon, a district along the border with Uganda, the fugitive chief of the outlawed militia has reportedly urged an end to the campaign, but remained defiant towards government.

CARIBBEAN: Crime Wave Spills Across Borders

Two mass slayings by armed gangs in Guyana earlier this year that took 23 lives, and an overall surge in violent crime in many parts of the Caribbean, have spurred regional leaders to call a special meeting to discuss the issue next month.

IRAQ: EU Looking for Safe Entry

The European Union lacks "clear guidelines" for use of private security firms to protect its civil servants operating in Iraq, a new report has found.

RIGHTS-MEXICO: Indigenous Candidate Disqualified Because ‘Not a Man’

Eufrosina Cruz was unable to exercise her constitutional right to stand for election as mayor of a small municipality in the southern state of Oaxaca because, according to the "uses and customs" of her indigenous community, women can neither vote nor be elected.

DEVELOPMENT-EAST AFRICA: Promise and Peril in Going – and Staying

Justina Bkole (38) was just a toddler when her parents fled to western Tanzania in 1972, to escape ethnic clashes in neighbouring Burundi. Like thousands of other refugees who made the same journey, she stayed in the East African country: a place to which she now has strong ties, even if her roots are in Burundi.

HEALTH-AFRICA: Training Anaesthesiologists to Do, And To Train

The need for a global effort to address the shortage of anaesthesiologists in Africa was highlighted over the past week during the World Congress of Anaesthesiologists - which took place in Cape Town, South Africa.

HEALTH-AFRICA: Anaesthesiology on Life Support

A discussion about anaesthesiology and anaesthesiologists is something that could bring on drowsiness, even sleep...Until, that is, the talk turns to shortages of anaesthesiologists in Africa and how this can increase surgical mortality. Statistics on this matter are frightening enough to keep anyone awake.