THAILAND/LAOS: Hmong Refugees Starve to Resist Deportation

By going on a hunger strike, some 150 ethnic Hmong refugees in Thailand have turned the heat on Bangkok to respect their rights and treat them with compassion.

HEALTH-ASIA: When Hearth Is No Longer Her Home

To Princey Mangalika from Sri Lanka, AIDS has come to mean hatred, hunger, humiliation and death.

CORRUPTION-HONDURAS: International Aid Hanging by a Thread

The Honduran government of Manuel Zelaya has not been able to overcome the country’s reputation for corruption, to the extent that it is on the point of losing millions of dollars in aid from the Millennium Challenge Account, a fund set up by the United States to help extremely poor countries.

MEXICO: Undocumented Migrants Have Labour Rights, Courts Rule

Two recent court rulings in Mexico hold out a glimmer of hope for greater respect for the rights of undocumented immigrants in this country.

RIGHTS-THAILAND: Restrictions Make Life Tough For Migrant Workers

Migrant workers do not have an easy time in Thailand, but those from the neighbouring countries of Burma, Cambodia and Laos have been facing an especially tough life following the imposition of a harsh decree on them that severely restricts their movements and rights.

PERU: Earthquake Death Toll 450 and Climbing

The fishing port of Pisco, 167 kilometres south of the Peruvian capital, was the town worst hit by the devastating earthquake which shook nearly the whole country for two minutes late Wednesday, reaching a magnitude of 7 on the Richter scale. The death toll continues to climb.

COLOMBIA: Thousands of Poor Line Up All Night for Gov’t Aid

Spending the cold Bogotá night outside on a sidewalk is not recommended. But thousands of poor Colombians, including many displaced by the civil war, had no choice this week if they wanted to register for the meagre assistance offered by the government’s Families in Action programme before the deadline expired.

MEXICO: Stranded Migrants Wait for Trains That Will Never Come

"Someone has to tell the immigrants that the trains aren't running anymore, that it’s useless to come here," pleads Catholic priest Juan Pablo Chávez in the southern Mexican town of Tenosique, where an estimated 7,000 Central American migrants have been stranded as they try to make their way to the United States.

SRI LANKA: Probe French Aid Agency For Massacre – Gov&#39t

A year after 17 workers of the French aid agency Action Against Hunger (ACF) were lined up and shot dead in the eastern town of Muttur, no one is sure who is responsible for the gruesome massacre - government forces or Tamil separatist rebels.

MIDEAST: ‘Quiet Transfer’ Pushes Palestinians Out

Arab residents of East Jerusalem are finding themselves increasingly under threat of what one Israeli human rights organisation calls "quiet transfer."

CULTURE-AUSTRALIA: Trauma of Partition Haunts Indians, Pakistanis

As Indians and Pakistanis celebrate the 60th anniversary of their independence, people affected by the simultaneous partition of the sub-continent and now living Down Under still find it difficult to make sense of a colossal man-made tragedy.

BURUNDI: Population Growth and Poor Farming Methods Weigh on the Land

In Busoni, northern Burundi, the Mbarushimana clan is receiving a hard lesson in the limits of natural resources. Three sons, and other relatives, are trying to survive on land inherited from their father, amidst doubts that the small property is up to the task of supporting them.

HUMAN RIGHTS-MEXICO: Crime Sans Punishment

The Mexican Supreme Court of Justice has decided that in cases of human rights violations, it will limit its action to conducting an inquiry, and will abstain from recommending sentences. Two state governors and several police chiefs will undoubtedly breathe easier after the announcement.

SOUTH ASIA: Bhutan Refugees Wary of US Resettlement Offer

After languishing for 17 years in temporary camps, some 108,000 ethnic Nepalis, expelled from their homeland in Bhutan, have a real chance to get out of the wilderness.

RIGHTS-MEXICO: 16,000 Victims of Child Sexual Exploitation

The child pornography and commercial sexual exploitation industry enjoys total impunity in the Mexican capital, according to a report by the Mexico City Human Rights Commission.

RIGHTS: Tutsis in U.S. Reunite in Mourning

An innocent child, no more than four years old, stands alone sobbing in a sunlit field scattered with torn and smouldering tents. Around him lay scores of human bodies; murder victims who were stabbed, shot and burnt. This is the scene that greeted a Human Rights Watch researcher on the morning of Aug. 14, 2004.

ARGENTINA: Defenders of Small Farmers Harassed and Threatened

A group of hooded men armed with shotguns threatened the leader of a small farmers’ organisation and the delegate of an international human rights organisation in a northern Argentine province after they reported an incident of corruption involving both Argentina and Spain.

LATIN AMERICA: Indigenous, Black Women Face ‘Triple Glass Ceiling’

Indigenous and black women in Latin America and the Caribbean face three-fold discrimination because of their gender, race and social class, in politics and at work.

POLITICS: UN Staff Oppose Proposed Iraq Resolution

The U.N. Staff Council, representing 25,000 staff members, unanimously passed a resolution Tuesday calling on Secretary General Ban Ki-moon not to deploy any additional staff members to Iraq and to remove those currently serving at the duty station in Baghdad.

ARGENTINA: Inequality for Women Begins at Home

For the first time, a woman is the favourite to win presidential elections in Argentina, but gender equity in the home is lagging way behind. A government study indicates that seven out of 10 men do not help with the housework.

LATIN AMERICA: Political Parity for Women Still a Long Way Off

Legislation in the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean has not succeeded in ending discrimination against women in political and public life, say participants at the 10th Regional Conference on Women being held in the Ecuadorean capital.