RIGHTS-EUROPE: &#39Non-lethal Weapons&#39 Tackle Protests Against Globalisation

Several European governments are arming their police forces with a new range of "non-lethal weapons" to put down protests against globalisation, and among immigrants.

LEBANON: Palestinian Refugees Face Systematic Discrimination

Denied access to social services, education, adequate housing and employment, Palestinian refugees in Lebanon continue to suffer discrimination and marginalisation.

POLITICS-SUDAN: Little Hope for Success Ahead of Darfur Talks

Long-awaited peace talks between Sudan's government and rebel groups from the country's war-torn Darfur region are due to begin in the Libyan port city of Sirte Saturday.

Q&A: "If You Are Poor, You Are Out"

Miloon Kothari, the U.N. special rapporteur for housing, recently visited Canada on a fact-finding mission to look at homelessness, aboriginal and women's housing issues, and the impact of the 2010 Olympic Games in Vancouver.

ELECTIONS-ARGENTINA: President Kirchner’s Legacy, Pending Challenges

When Néstor Kirchner took over the presidency in 2003, Argentina was in a state of collapse. He managed to establish a model of economic growth that brought down the soaring unemployment and poverty rates. But whoever succeeds him in December will still have challenges to face.

PAKISTAN/AFGHANISTAN: Civilians Flee Air Strikes on Militant Targets

Civilians are fleeing Pakistan’s lawless border areas abutting Afghanistan following heavy artillery fire and air strikes by the military against militant targets.

DRC: Hospital’s Tale Reveals Missing Children, Brutalised Women

Long after fighting in the Ituri region of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has largely subsided, civilian populations there continue to face high levels of violence from all sides, according to the global humanitarian group Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF).

NICARAGUA: Of Forests, Floods, Fatalities and Famine

The forces of nature are giving Nicaragua no respite. After the hurricane that devastated the country’s northeastern Caribbean coast in September, weeks of torrential rains have claimed lives and caused economic damages, and now the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) is warning of famine.

MIGRATION: Fortress Europe Should Lower Its Drawbridge, Says NGO

The European Union is set to open its doors wide to qualified immigrants with its blue card system, and at the same time slam them even more tightly shut to undocumented workers, of whom there are 10 million in the bloc, including 700,000 in Spain.

DEVELOPMENT: Good or Bad, Globalisation Marches On

The phenomenon of globalisation is on the rise in several regions of the world not usually thought of as heavyweights on the international stage, according to the seventh annual "Globalisation Index" released here Monday by Foreign Policy magazine.

DEVELOPMENT: Pakistanis Challenge World Bank Over Water Works

Pakistani plaintiffs say the World Bank has yet to make good on promises to fix flaws blamed for lost lives and livelihoods along the world's largest irrigation system.

Q&A: “We Don’t Believe Gbagbo Will Organise Transparent Elections”

Will it be third time lucky for Ivorian opposition leader Alassane Ouattara during presidential elections which many hope will take place in Cote d'Ivoire next year?

RIGHTS-ARGENTINA: Tortured Labour, Stolen Newborns

"Torture with the electric prod when she was close to term induced accelerated labour," says the report "Maternidades Clandestinas" (Motherhood in Clandestine Prisons), which tells the stories of dozens of women illegally imprisoned during Argentina’s 1976-1983 dictatorship.

PARAGUAY: Environmentalists Up in Arms Over Mega-Port

Residents, environmentalists and local and national authorities in Paraguay are at odds over the pros and cons of a port complex being built by U.S. agribusiness giant Cargill on the outskirts of the capital.

CULTURE-VIETNAM: Drawing Tourist Dollars – Sans Noise, Sleaze

As Vietnam vies for a slice of South-east Asia's tourism pie, it finds itself grappling with a familiar problem - how to let the locals make a living out of the industry while maintaining the peace and exclusivity that foreign tourists seek.

POLITICS-CUBA: Women, Local Elections and People’s Power

Marisol Cabrera has become quite at ease as president of the municipal government of the Cuban town of Placetas. But nine years ago it was another story, and she herself had doubts. "I wondered whether I was capable of this, it felt like a huge challenge. There was no tradition of women in this post," she says.

CLIMATE CHANGE: South American Scientists Call for Social Commitment

Counteracting the effects of climate change in Latin America requires the involvement of society, two of the South American scientists on the IPCC, which was awarded the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize, said in Ecuador.

SYRIA: Rights Groups Fly By Ever Darker Night

The fragile human rights situation in Syria shows little prospect of improving, with authorities moving consistently in the wrong direction and the international community, politically weakened in the region, able to do little more than watch, a major rights group said Wednesday.

RIGHTS: Around the World, Children Make "Good Soldiers"

When the former first lady of Mozambique Gracha Machel authored a 1996 landmark report on child soldiers, she said that military commanders on the ground had told her that children were "impressionable and easy to dominate".

GREECE: Migrants Confined in Degradation

"Conditions in the detention centre of Samos are offensive to human dignity, and a violation of human rights; it is a compromise of Greek status internationally."

RIGHTS-SRI LANKA: Tamils Traumatised by War, Tsunami – Study

Residents of war-wracked Jaffna city in northern Sri Lanka are a community on the run; every family has a bag packed with essentials, ready to flee at a moment's notice, a new research study reports.