POPULATION: Morocco, Spain Get Tough on Illegal Immigrants

Illegal immigrants seeking to start a new life in Europe will now find it impossible to jump the border after Moroccan and Spanish armies have erected a barbed wire between their common frontier.

RIGHTS: UN Agency Blamed for Sudanese Refugee Deaths

Arab and Middle East civil society groups are accusing a United Nations agency of collaborating with Egyptian police in action which caused the deaths of at least 25 Sudanese refugees in a downtown Cairo park on Friday.

ARGENTINA: Families Still Fighting for Justice a Year After Tragic Fire

The tragedy that occurred in the popular Republica Cromañón discotheque in the Argentine capital a year ago Friday accentuated the distance between the citizens and their elected officials, according to experts and the families of victims of the fire that killed 194 young concert-goers.

ARGENTINA: Education to Overcome Tradition of Tax Evasion

A novel plan for tax education in Argentina is using theatre, puppets, educational games, entertainment centres, and competitions to teach youngsters about the importance of paying taxes to finance and preserve what belongs to everybody. They are all useful methods, according to those in charge of the programme.

MEXICO: Zapatista Guerrillas Set for Nationwide Tour

After playing a high-profile role in global indigenous and social movements in the 1990s, Mexico's Zapatista guerrillas gradually faded out of the limelight. But a nationwide tour that will start on New Year's Day is likely to change that.

POPULATION-PORTUGAL: Getting Older and Older

The Portuguese population is getting older and older, people are marrying less frequently and later, and the net birth rate is close to zero, according to the latest figures published by the National Institute of Statistics (INE).

RIGHTS-MEXICO: Journalist Hit with Libel Charge after Exposing Paedophile Ring

Journalist and activist Lydia Cacho believes that the influence wielded by a powerful child prostitution and pornography ring is responsible for the death threats she has been receiving for months and her recent arrest on criminal libel charges.

CHALLENGES 2005-2006: No Turning Back on Gay Rights in Cuba

As hundreds of same-sex couples in Britain - including singer-songwriter Elton John and Canadian-born filmmaker David Furnish, his partner of 12 years - are taking advantage of a new law that allows them to enter into civil partnerships with the same rights as heterosexual marriages, gays and lesbians in Cuba are still struggling to achieve a bare minimum of social acceptance.

TSUNAMI IMPACT: Child Survivors Carry Scars

Her drawings of the sea offer a window into the mind of a nine-year-old child whose life was shattered when the Asian tsunami flattened her coastal village on the morning after Christmas Day, last year.

ARGENTINA: Now, Housework Pays

They cook, clean, wash, iron, and look after the children, the elderly and the sick, without pay. They are neither robots nor angels, but homemakers, who keep on working after the age of retirement. But at least now in Argentina they will have access to a pension.

TSUNAMI-IMPACT: For Sex Workers, the Show Must Go On

Clad in skimpy black bikini and knee-length boots, the young Thai woman gyrated around the silver pole and blew kisses at the mainly European patrons of the go-go bar she was performing in.

CHALLENGES 2005-2006: U.S. Builds Up Its Fences Against Migration

The United States was roundly criticised again this year for the continued hardening of its immigration policy, which is largely to blame for the death of about 300 migrants a year. But the criticism has not had any effect, and some observers predict even greater difficulties in 2006.

CHALLENGES 2005-2006: Senegal Stemming Migration Flood to Europe

More than three months after his forced repatriation from Morocco, Mamdou Diop, 28, still harbours bitter memories of his odyssey toward Europe.

RIGHTS: No Declaration for Indigenous Peoples This Year – Maybe Next

The long-awaited international declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples may see the light of day in 2006, after more than 10 years of complex efforts by a United Nations working group, experts announced.

MEXICO: Tracking Down the Serial Killer of Poor, Elderly Women

"When someone asks how old I am, I say I'm 15, just in case the 'little old lady killer' is listening," said 78-year-old pensioner Beatriz Juárez, her irony masking her fear of a killer on the loose who is blamed for the murders of nearly 50 people in Mexico City.

HEALTH: Spain Joins Growing Anti-Smoking Trend

Spain has joined in a growing worldwide trend by adopting strict new legislation that will ban smoking in the workplace and other enclosed public spaces as of Jan. 1, while requiring bars and restaurants to offer non-smoking sections.

BRAZIL: Government, Activists Still at Loggerheads Over Land Reform

While Brazil's leftist government claims this was the best year ever for land reform, the National Forum for Agrarian Reform and Justice in the Countryside complains that land redistribution efforts have fallen far short of the target.

CHALLENGES 2005-2006: Women Making Headway in Argentina

They had been waiting at the starting line for years. Now in little over a year in Argentina, several women have sprinted on to the public scene and have taken possession of positions of responsibility historically occupied by men.

LATIN AMERICA: Indigenous Leaders Celebrate Morales Victory

The election of indigenous leader Evo Morales as president of Bolivia is being hailed by native leaders from throughout the region as a "sign of hope" for all impoverished and discriminated indigenous peoples in Latin America.

HEALTH-BRAZIL: NGOs Push to Avoid Preventable Maternal Deaths

The death of a woman in childbirth is a horrific blow to a family preparing for what is meant to be a joyous event, the arrival of a new life. In Brazil, the loss is made even more painful by the fact that over 90 percent of these deaths are preventable.

CUBA-SWITZERLAND: Changing Lives

Gilberto González, a member of a cooperative in the eastern Cuban province of Holguín, came to the conclusion that metal silos are "the best thing in the world" after discovering that he can store his kidney bean crop in them without the loss of a single bean.