ARGENTINA: Overcoming Past Antisemitic Injustices

"A state secret that became a family secret...and is no longer a secret" was how Argentine journalist Uki Goñi described a confidential order issued by the Argentine government to deny visas to European Jews before and during World War II, which he helped bring to light.

DEVELOPMENT-INDIA: Disparities Sharpen as GDP Grows

That the first, second and third worlds coexist within India has long been known. A new academic report corroborates this but also speaks of a 'fourth world' left behind in this country of a billion people, that aspires to be a global leader.

PORTUGAL: Asylum for African Refugees Stranded in the Desert

For 12 African refugees who finally found shelter in Portugal, the violence, persecution and abuses that they thought they had left behind in their home countries were still present during their long journeys, when they were abandoned to their fate in the middle of the Sahara desert.

WORLD SOCIAL FORUM: Indigenous People Demand More Central Role

Indigenous leaders from Latin America are overjoyed at the inauguration of Aymara Indian Evo Morales as Bolivia's new president, which they are celebrating as a victory of their own. They are now hoping that the achievement will help catapult them into a more central role at the sixth World Social Forum (WSF), which opens Tuesday in Venezuela.

DEVELOPMENT: Groups Worried About New US Aid Czar

The United States has unveiled a new plan for how it spends foreign aid dollars that links U.S. security to democracy and development overseas.

ENVIRONMENT: World Stands at a Crossroads

With 60 percent of the Earth's ecosystems in trouble right now, according to the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, what will the future be like in 2050?

SPAIN: Credit Card Trail Leads to Child Porn Arrests

The arrests in Spain of 33 people, including a Catholic priest, for allegedly purchasing and distributing child pornography over the Internet has highlighted the need to step up joint international efforts to combat this crime.

RIGHTS: Many Charts of Women’s Progress Remain Blank

The lack of vital gender-related statistics - on population, health, education and labour - is distorting the social and economic position of women worldwide, according to a new U.N. report released Wednesday.

HEALTH-INDIA: Laws Fail to Remedy Skewed Sex Ratio

Damning evidence in the British medical journal ‘The Lancet', that illegal sex selective abortions in India were responsible for 10 million ''missing'' girls over the last two decades, has goaded health authorities and campaigners into renewed action.

MIGRATION: Illegal But Integral to Economy

British economy and its public services will collapse without immigrants who have entered the country illegally, leading experts say.

AFGHANISTAN: Harsh Winter Claims Lives In Makeshift Camps

Freezing cold weather has worsened the plight of thousands of Afghans living in makeshift camps since their return from refugee camps in neighbouring Pakistan and Iran.

ELECTIONS-CHILE: Going After the Crucial Female Vote

In the final stretch to Chile's presidential runoff election, governing coalition candidate Michelle Bachelet and her rival, rightwinger Sebastián Piñera, are competing for women's votes. There are more women than men on the electoral roll, and on Jan. 15, the female vote will play a decisive role in determining who wins and who loses.

DEVELOPMENT-AFRICA: Spain Pledges Increase in Aid

Although Spain's socialist government plans to expand foreign aid to Africa in all areas, critics continue to demand a greater commitment and compliance with earlier promises.

HEALTH: After Bullets and Bombs, TB Gets Afghans

Afghans, survivors of Soviet helicopter gunships and the bombs dumped on their country by a United States prosecuting its ‘war on terror', are now confronted by another killer-tuberculosis.

JAPAN: Wooing Women as Birth Rates Drop

Gender equality has been a distant dream in Japan but a drastic national population decline is forcing the government to take steps to help women - if only to encourage them to have more children.

MIGRATION: Governments Take United Stance Against Proposed U.S. Border Fence

The governments of five countries of Central America, Colombia, the Dominican Republic and Mexico met Monday to join forces against the U.S. plan to build a high security fence along portions of its borders to keep out undocumented immigrants, a goal that many U.S. citizens support.

POLITICS: UN Bodies Survive US Funding Threats

The United States, a major funder of the United Nations and its myriad agencies, has a longstanding notoriety for exercising its financial clout to threaten U.N. bodies refusing to play ball with Washington.

POLITICS-US: Bush Bypasses Senate on Two Crony Appointments

Resorting once more to controversial "recess" appointments, U.S. President George W. Bush has named two political cronies to key administration positions without Senate approval.

ARGENTINA: Storm Victims Evicted from Public Housing

Around 1,000 people whose precarious dwellings were destroyed by a storm in the northeastern province of Chaco were violently evicted Thursday from housing units built by the national government, which had not yet been assigned to their future occupants.

MEXICO: Indigenous People “As Poor as Ever”

Some 13 million indigenous people in Mexico, most of whom are poor, illiterate and work for little to no pay, saw the New Year arrive while listening to yet more government promises that things would improve and watching the start of a unique Zapatista guerrilla campaign in favour of their rights.

GERMANY: World Cup – a Magnet for Forced Prostitution?

Football players, fans and journalists from all over the world are getting ready to head to the World Cup in Germany. And among those packing their bags are about 40,000 sex workers who will be there to satisfy the high demand for their services.