WORLD POPULATION DAY: U.S. Funding Continues to Stumble

As the United Nations commemorated World Population Day Wednesday, the United States remains the only major donor that continues to cut off funds to the only international agency focusing primarily on population: the U.N. Population Fund (UNFPA).

MIGRATION: Iraq Exodus Fuels Rise in Refugees, Displaced

For the second year in a row, violence and persecution in Iraq fuelled a sharp rise in the number of people worldwide who were forced to flee their homelands, according to the latest edition of "World Refugee" released here Wednesday by the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI).

CARIBBEAN: Putting People Before Economics

Years after issuing its 1989 Declaration of Grand Anse that serves as the blueprint for a Caribbean Single Market and Economy (CSME), regional leaders have come to the realisation that it will take more than economics to drive and deepen the integration process.

WORLD POPULATION DAY: Enlightened Men Prescribed for Maternal Health

What is a common factor in ensuring that women do not marry too young, do not have more children than they can cope with, do not die giving birth - and contract HIV in smaller numbers? Men.

RIGHTS-BOLIVIA: Indigenous People March On Constituent Assembly

Indigenous people are marching for their right to autonomy, heading from the lowland city of Santa Cruz de la Sierra in central Bolivia to the constitutional and judicial capital, Sucre, where the country's Constituent Assembly is meeting.

CHILE: Aymaras Don’t Want to Disappear

Twenty years ago, close to 100 indigenous Aymara people lived in the village of Cancosa, but today only 10 remain. The same is true of many indigenous communities in the Chilean Altiplano, as their members have moved out in search of jobs and educational opportunities.

EGYPT: Fearing Border Protests, Cairo Meets Bedouin Demands

Two months after the Bedouin, an indigenous people of Egypt's Sinai Peninsula began holding angry demonstrations against what they call a policy of official harassment by police, the authorities last week released dozens of tribesmen detained in mass arrests over the last three years.

RIGHTS-IRAN: Dark Days for Women

Judicial authorities in Iran have sentenced two women activists who participated in a peaceful protest against discriminatory laws in June 2006 to more than 30 months in jail and ten lashes.

RIGHTS-PAKISTAN: Afghan Refugees Forcibly Herded Home – Activists

While heavy seasonal rains that damaged bridges on the road to Afghanistan have forced the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to suspend repatriation operations, Pakistan’s frontier police has announced intensification of efforts to send back 'illegal' Afghans.

Q&A: Science Ignores AIDS in Women, Says Nobel Nominee

Science has yet to provide rigorous studies of how HIV/AIDS or the impacts of antiretroviral medications affect women's bodies in particular, Argentine activist Patricia Pérez, nominated for the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize, told Tierramérica.

FINANCE: Development Banks Lag on Sexual Health – Report

Despite strong verbal commitments to reproductive and sexual health, the so-called multilateral development banks (MDBs) that lend to poor nations have spent relatively little money on such projects and, in some cases, have followed policies on the ground that in fact impeded women's empowerment and improved public health, a new study charges.

CHILE: Aymaras Vow Mining Co. Will Restore Wetland

The Aymara community of Cancosa on the Chilean Altiplano region of Tarapacá, bordering Bolivia, will spare no effort in its struggle to rehabilitate a wetland dried out by the Cerro Colorado Mining Company (CMCC), an affiliate of the Anglo-Australian BHP Billiton company.

SRI LANKA: Norway in No Hurry to Resume Mediation

While much store is being set by the prospect of Norway returning to its key role as mediator between the nationalist government of Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse and ethnic Tamil rebels, indications are that the Scandinavians are in no hurry.

BRAZIL: New Lives for Victims of Slave Labour

José Alves has held on, for memory’s sake, to what is left of the old bicycle that took him hundreds of kilometres throughout Brazil’s eastern Amazon jungle region as he "hunted for work to improve my life." His need for a job led him to fall victim to slave labour - not once, but several times.

EL SALVADOR: Progress in Fight on Poverty Called into Question

Although the government of El Salvador triumphantly holds out statistics reflecting a reduction of chronic poverty in this Central American country, local and international experts have joined their voices with those of common citizens to cast into doubt the validity of the official figures.

DEVELOPMENT: Latin America Ahead on MDGs – Except for Poverty

Latin America is leading the developing world in terms of statistical progress towards most of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). However, it is failing on the main goal: halving the proportion of people living in poverty.

POLITICS: Conflicts In the Spotlight at African Union Summit

The conflicts in Somalia and Darfur have come under discussion at the African Union (AU) summit underway in Accra.

DEVELOPMENT: Uneven Results Forecast for Millennium Goals

The world's 22 rich nations, comprising the Paris-based Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), grudgingly doled out about 104 billion dollars in official development assistance (ODA) to the world's poorer nations in 2006.

RIGHTS-BRAZIL: Freeing Modern-Day Slaves

A young man with burns to his hands and feet which have become evil-smelling open wounds arrives, assisted by a co-worker. He suffered an electric shock on the hacienda (estate) where he works, when a metal rod he was carrying made contact with a high-tension cable.

CUBA: Women Combating Shortage of Decent Housing

Juana Hilda Naranjo no longer worries when it rains. For the last three years she has been living in a modern apartment out of reach of the water and wind, thanks to the efforts of the Taller de Transformación (Transformation Workshop) in the poor, predominantly black Havana neighbourhood of Pogolotti.

SOUTH AFRICA: "You Cannot Keep People Away From Settling in Cities"

Population issues are in the spotlight at present with the recent release of the United Nations Population Fund's annual report - and World Population Day, to be commemorated Jul. 11.