IRAQ: Refugees Caught Between Deportation and Death Threats

Hundreds of thousands of Iraqis driven out of their country by violence are now faced with detention abroad, or a homecoming to death threats.

DEVELOPMENT: Food Prices Climbing, With No End in Sight

Globalisation, climate change, and the mass production of biofuels are pushing up food prices worldwide, which could jeopardise the livelihoods of the world's poorest, according to a report released Tuesday by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).

MIGRATION-GERMANY: Women in a New Country Draw Together

"You try to adapt, but you become like a mute person," said Teresa, who was born in Colombia and has lived in Germany for over 20 years, describing what it feels like to be an immigrant.

RIGHTS-PARAGUAY: More Than a Rap on the Knuckles

The Paraguayan government was reprimanded by a United Nations expert committee for the extent and degree of poverty in the country, the denial of land to campesinos and indigenous people, the indiscriminate use of agrochemicals and the persistence of discrimination against women.

Q&A: "Sanitation Is a Political Orphan"

Last month, the Prince of Orange, Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands, and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon joined forces to declare 2008 the International Year of Sanitation (IYS).

PAPUA NEW GUINEA: Waking Up Finally to the HIV and AIDS Threat

When the new government of Papua New Guinea (PNG) set up in August a separate ministry devoted to containing HIV and AIDS in this Pacific Island country, it reflected the enormity of the threat to its six million people.

GUATEMALA: Teaching With Two Voices

In the Xepanil village school in Santa Apolonia, to the west of the Guatemalan capital, 20 children are learning both Spanish and the Mayan indigenous language Kaqchikel. Their teacher, Marta Lidia Rodríguez, one of thousands of bilingual education teachers in this country today, walks an hour a day to get to the school.

CUBA: Machismo Not O.K. – But Not Yet K.O.’d

Gradually, more men in Cuba are declining to take on traditional masculine behaviour patterns, and women who oppose the machismo and sexism that still predominates are opening up ways of changing gender relations, beyond the effects of official measures taken to promote equality over the last 50 years.

WORLD AIDS DAY-EL SALVADOR: More People Testing Positive

The rise in new HIV/AIDS cases in El Salvador shows either that the government strategy to combat the epidemic is failing, or that a larger proportion of the population is being tested, depending on the respective viewpoints of non-governmental organisations and local authorities.

RIGHTS-PERU: President Brandishes His Own Terror Threat

Fear has struck again, chilling the hearts of hundreds of Peruvians who were sent to prison on false charges of belonging to the Maoist Shining Path guerrillas or the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement (MRTA) during Peru’s 1980-2000 civil war.

WORLD AIDS DAY-INDIA: Sexing Up Safe Sex to Limit HIV Spread

Sex workers in this eastern metropolis are being encouraged to put pleasure back into their services as one way of limiting the spread of HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases (STDs).

FRANCE: Troubled Suburbs Erupt Again

The police station is a smouldering abandoned ruin, its roof gone, its walls charred black, and tiles scattered about its courtyard. From behind its locked gates the pungent stench of burned wood and plastic is carried on the wind into the street.

POLITICS-BALKANS: Kosovo Talks Collapse, Raising Many Questions

The final round of internationally sponsored talks on the future Kosovo collapsed Wednesday in Baden, Austria. Belgrade and Pristina remained firm in their diametrically opposed positions.

LABOUR: Decent Work Scarcer Than Ever

The world has the resources, wealth and knowledge to make economic, social and cultural well-being universal, according to the biennial U.N. report on the World Social Situation (RWSS) released here Monday.

SOUTH AMERICA: In Street Football, Playing Is Winning

Football can cause excitement and euphoria, or anger and even aggression, but the Second South American Street Football Championship taking place this week in the Paraguayan capital puts the emphasis on solidarity, fair play and social participation.

WORLD AIDS DAY-CUBA: Volunteers on the Front Line of Prevention

While scientists devote their best efforts to developing an AIDS vaccine, prevention continues to be the most effective way of containing the pandemic which has already caused the deaths of 2.1 million people this year, and new infections in another 2.5 million people.

MIDEAST: Much Ado About Annapolis

The Middle East peace conference that began and ended here on this crisp, sunny Tuesday was lean on specifics for a lasting peace deal between Israel and Palestine and the formation of a Palestinian state.

LEBANON: Violent Politics Play Out in Packed Refugee Camps

On the edge of Beirut's suburbs lies Bourj al-Barajneh, a Palestinian enclave located at the heart of a Shiite neighbourhood, traditionally the domain of Iran-backed Hezbollah. Here, 17,000 Palestinian refugees are amassed on a minuscule swath of land, co-existing in a fragile truce among run-down buildings and muddy streets.

IRAQ: Detentions Escalate in Diwaniyah

Detentions have become commonplace in Iraq, but now more than ever before people are being detained after being accused of membership in "militias supported by Iran."

PERU: Shining Path Rebels and the War on Drugs

A surviving faction of Peru’s Shining Path guerrillas has launched an offensive against anti-drug police units in the Apurímac and Ene river valleys - an area known by the acronym VRAE - in one of the country’s main coca-growing and cocaine-producing regions.

CLIMATE CHANGE: Today, the Poor – Tomorrow, the Next Generation

Although climate change threatens the international community as a whole, the heaviest human costs are borne by the poor, who have contributed least to the problem, according to the United Nations.