LABOUR-MALAYSIA: Migrant Worker’s Death Exposes Slave-like Conditions

The shocking torture and death of an Indian national allegedly at the hands of his employers here has highlighted the lack of protection and support networks for migrant workers in this country.

GUATEMALA: Indigenous Women Last in Line for MDGs

Guatemala is making slow, uneven progress towards meeting the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), with maternal mortality and illiteracy remaining the most persistent problems, mid-way to the 2015 deadline.

POPULATION: NGOs Warn of World Bank “Fundamentalists”

When the United States tried to water down a longstanding policy on reproductive health and family planning at the World Bank last month, there was a storm of protests from population experts and activist groups worldwide.

DEVELOPMENT: Fight Against Poverty – a Marathon, Not a Sprint

Combating poverty is more like a long distance race than a sprint, and in the past two years progress has been made that would have been unthinkable decades ago. But much remains to be done, say activists from all over the world who have gathered together in the Uruguayan capital.

VENEZUELA: The Gift of Native Tongues, On the Air

Eiker García and Nelson Maldonado took a deep breath, then exhaled slowly, producing a long "mmm" sound, following the instructions of the professional radio presenter who was giving them breathing and elocution lessons.

RIGHTS-CENTRAL AMERICA: Turning Back to a Murky Past?

Social inequality is on the rise in Central America, and the region is backsliding with respect to the standards set forth in the American Convention on Human Rights, according to activists and analysts.

RELIGION-BRAZIL: Pope to Come Looking for Lost Sheep

On his upcoming visit to Brazil, Pope Benedict XVI will find that the Roman Catholic Church, which used to be absolutely predominant in this country, has been losing members rapidly since the 1980s to the growing evangelical Pentecostal groups. And even more former Catholics now profess no religion at all.

BIODIVERSITY: Farming Will Make or Break the Food Chain

As the world population swells to nine billion by 2050, global biodiversity will be under extreme pressure unless new ways to grow food are developed, experts say.

Q&A: Victims in Colombia Are Gagged, the Public Misinformed

When a murder occurs in a Colombian community, the locals know who committed it: far-right paramilitaries, leftwing guerrillas, or the security forces. They also know if fighting really took place, or if the "enemy" bodies displayed on television as "trophies" by army officers were in fact dead civilians.

LEBANON: Refugees Learn to Substitute Government

The influx of refugees from Palestinian areas and the inability of the government to do much for them has strengthened a unique NGO providing essential services.

FRANCE: Sarkozy Needs Also to Get Past Himself

Opinion polls suggest that ruling party candidate Nicolas Sarkozy will win the second and decisive round of the French presidential elections May 6. But to do so he must triumph over Socialist candidate Ségolène Royal and also his own poor image among a substantial minority of French citizens.

POLITICS-SUDAN: “Do Something Now, Because People Are Dying Every Day”

On a blazing spring day in New York's financial district, as executives hurry past in suits and ties, a handful of protestors position themselves directly in front of the headquarters of Fidelity, one of the leading investment firms in the United States.

CUBA: Twenty Years with God and the Revolution

Close to one of the busiest crossroads in the Cuban capital, but peaceful nonetheless, the non-governmental Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Centre (CMLK) has been active in Cuban society for two decades, working for a more participative social system.

MAY DAY-MALAYSIA: New Law Targets Traffickers, Not Victims

Malaysia has tabled a tough new anti-human trafficking bill that punishes offenders with up to 20 years in prison, but rights activists, who had fought for such a law for a decade, say the bill's success depends heavily on effective enforcement.

LABOUR-JAPAN: Xenophobia May Hamper Economic Growth

Junko Nakayama, 56, refuses to believe that the number of foreigners arrested for crimes is decreasing as per statistics released by the National Policy Agency.

MIGRATION-BOLIVIA: How to Harness Growing Remittances

Like footballers in Argentina, emigrants start out young, Abdón Linares likes to say about his home province in central Bolivia, where the economy has come to depend heavily on expatriate remittances.

LABOUR-SPAIN: Immigrants’ Plight Ignored by Unions Ahead of May Day

The conditions faced by immigrants in Spain, who despite their contribution to the economy are the most vulnerable when it comes to labour rights, have not even been mentioned in the demands and grievances voiced by the country's trade union federations as they prepare for May 1, International Labour Day.

HEALTH-U.S.: City Takes Aim at Hepatitis Among Asian Americans

This west-coast city has earned a reputation as a health trendsetter. Last year, San Francisco unveiled a plan to offer universal health care to all its residents (to take effect Jul. 1). Now it has become the first U.S. city to launch a plan to test and vaccinate all Asian and Pacific Islander American residents for hepatitis B.

RIGHTS-BRAZIL: Homeless Join Month of Protests

The Homeless Workers Movement (MTST) blocked three access roads into Sao Paulo on Wednesday, continuing a month-long struggle during which they have invaded a large number of buildings and unoccupied urban sites in several state capitals.

HUMAN RIGHTS: Activists and Military Officers Hand in Hand

Joined together in an enormous human chain and singing songs that marked the end of Portugal's 48-year dictatorship on Apr. 25, 1974, military officers who overthrew the regime and human rights activists from 105 different countries came out in defence of the world's migrants.

HEALTH-MEXICO: Abortion No Longer a Crime in Capital

The Mexico City legislature voted Tuesday to legalise abortion, after several weeks of heated debate in which conservative groups and the Catholic Church traded insults with pro-choice activists and threatened them with excommunication.