BOLIVIA: Constituent Assembly in Coma?

The elected assembly rewriting Bolivia’s constitution has fallen into coma, along with a prominent indigenous leader of the governing Movement to Socialism (MAS) party, Román Loayza, who is in critical condition after a freak accident that occurred during a session that approved the assembly’s rules of debate - a decision that is threatening to divide the country.

CUBA: Why Some Leave, or Want to, and Others Stay

Almost every evening, Alina Díaz goes down to the sea shore in the Cuban capital to contemplate the deep Caribbean waters which, two years ago, swallowed up her son Abel. She still cannot understand why the 21-year-old student got involved in the adventure that would take him away from his family and cost him his life.

SOUTH AMERICA: Getting Real About Underage Drug Consumption

Out-of-control drug abuse among South American youth - myth or reality? Could societal perception have blown the phenomenon way out of proportion? Have we zeroed in on this one issue at the expense of efforts to address the broader context of social problems like poverty and marginalisation?

SPAIN: Immigrants Make the Economy Grow

Immigrants have been a major factor in Spain's robust economic growth, according to a new study by Caixa Catalunya, one of the country's largest banks.

VENEZUELA: Guns for Hire Near the Colombian Border

You can hire a killer for 200 dollars in Táchira, an Andean highlands state in western Venezuela, said the father of two young men who were murdered this year in that area on the border with Colombia.

SRI LANKA: Humanitarian Crisis Building Up in Jaffna

With supplies cut off by two weeks of fierce fighting between Tamil rebels and the Sri Lankan armed forces, a massive humanitarian crisis is building up on the Jaffna peninsula according to the Red Cross and other voluntary agencies.

UAE: More Women in College, Fewer Find Jobs

Two out of every three graduates in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) is a woman. Yet, when it comes to finding work, women comprise 50 percent of unemployed citizens in the Gulf Arab state.

POPULATION-SINGAPORE: It is Either Babies or Immigrants

Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong has warned that Singaporeans will either have to produce more babies or they would have to welcome more migrants to sustain economic growth and living standards.

MIGRATION-LATIN AMERICA: Job Offer Too Good to Be True?

The marriage or job offer abroad sounds too good to be true? It very well might be. Tens of thousands of people in Latin America fall victims to human trafficking every year. Claudia, a 28-year-old Colombian mother of two who has experience as a computer systems technician, was just one of them.

ECUADOR: Eruption Exposes Indigenous Poverty

While the Tungurahua volcano, 150 kilometres south of Quito, has literally masked its vicinity in thick ash, the eruption has exposed Ecuador's vulnerability to natural disasters and the extreme poverty in which the majority of this Andean country's indigenous communities live.

BOLIVIA: Rewriting the Constitution to Reflect the Country’s True Colours

A vigorous voice speaking in Quechua is answered by another speaking in Aymara as Bolivia's constituent assembly begins to rewrite the constitution under the government of Evo Morales, the country's first-ever indigenous president.

ENVIRONMENT-PAKISTAN: Rains Send Quake Victims Back to Tent Villages

Just when they thought it was safe to go home, the displaced survivors of the Oct. 8, 2005 temblor have had to quickly scuttle back to tent villages and meagre supplies - due to landslides and flash floods triggered by torrential monsoon rains affecting the country.

DEVELOPMENT: Women Matter – In All of the Millennium Goals

In order to advance towards the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), gender equality cannot merely be limited to a number of specific objectives, but must be the lens through which all the targets are viewed, say experts and representatives of women's movements in Argentina.

DEVELOPMENT: Water Crisis Reflects Poor Management

An international conference on water management opened in the Swedish capital Monday with the grim prediction that both rich and poor nations are heading towards a crisis unless positive steps are taken to efficiently conserve one of the world's life-sustaining resources.

ENVIRONMENT-PORTUGAL: Summer Heat and Forest Fire Hell

In just two weeks of the northern hemisphere's hottest month, fires raged through 36,000 hectares of forest in Portugal and 89,000 in the northwestern Spanish region of Galicia. And history keeps on repeating itself every August in these two lands with similar languages, customs and geography.

IRAQ: Ever Closer to Fears of Civil War

Hanan's family could never have thought three years ago of leaving Baghdad. They had lived for years in peace with their Shia neighbours in the ethnically mixed Shaab district. All that changed the morning they saw a letter in their courtyard giving them three days to leave.

PERU: Indigenous Community to Take Oil Company to Court

Arankartuktaram! This Achuar cry sums up what indigenous communities in the heart of Peru's Amazon jungle region are demanding from the State and multinational oil companies - a little respect.

HEALTH-PAKISTAN: Drive Against Polio Hit by Rumours, Litigation

The reliability and safety of oral polio vaccine (OPV) has been put under scrutiny in Pakistan after wild rumours that it causes impotency snowballed into a writ petition in a high court.

PAKISTAN: Expats Wary of ‘Charities’ From Home

Amid reports of money collected by Pakistani charities abroad ending up in funding terrorist activity comes new research that suggests that the prosperous Pakistani-American community is extremely wary of sending money to organisations from the home country.

MEXICO: Gender Violence Continues to Claim Its Victims

No longer able to bear the physical and emotional violence she endured for years at the hands of her husband, Amelia finally committed suicide - just one more victim of gender violence in Mexico, which cost the lives of more than 6,000 girls and women between 1999 and 2005, according to official statistics.

SRI LANKA: Civilians Displaced and Dying in Shadow War

Death hangs over this deserted town in eastern Sri Lanka and the stench of decomposing bodies is overpowering. Most of its 50,000-odd inhabitants have fled and there is no one around to bury the dead.