CENTRAL AMERICA-MEXICO: Hurricanes Make Illegal Migration Even Stormier

Central American migrants crossing into southern Mexico on their way to the United States not only face predatory youth gangs and corrupt police, but have now found themselves stranded by this month's hurricanes, which wiped out stretches of roads and the railway.

VENEZUELA: Indigenous People Protest Coal Mining

Recent protests by indigenous people in Venezuela defending their land and the environment from coal mining show that not all is rosy in their relations with the government of Hugo Chávez, although they recognise that no president has ever done so much for the country's 35 native ethnic groups.

PAKISTAN: Thousands of Lives at Risk from Quake Relief Shortfalls

As the United Nations nearly doubled its appeal target for the South Asia earthquake relief Wednesday, development groups warned that rich countries' failure to respond generously to the crisis could cost thousands of people their lives.

DEVELOPMENT-US: Katrina Survivors Refuse to Be Forgotten

When Tanya Harris returned to what was left of her home in the Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans earlier this month, she feared that her few remaining belongings would end up buried in the rubble being carted out of the city devastated by Hurricane Katrina.

MIGRATION: Is There an Upside to the “Brain Drain”?

Some of the world's smallest and poorest nations have lost an astonishing 89 percent of their skilled workers to richer countries, but may still gain financially from foreign remittances, the World Bank said Tuesday.

DEVELOPMENT: Fire Alarm Is Ringing, But the Hoses Are Dry

The United Nations, under relentless pressure to provide humanitarian assistance to hundreds of thousands of people hit by a rash of recent natural disasters worldwide, is hoping its proposed new Central Emergency Respond Fund (CERF) will be up and running by early 2006.

PAKISTAN: Tents Not Sole Solution for Quake Victims

A fortnight after the devastating October 8 temblor hit the Kashmir region, the survivors are huddled down under plastic sheeting, cardboard or rocky overhangs, sheltering as best they can against a mercilessly cold and wet Himalayan winter.

PORTUGAL: EU Membership Has Not Spelled Wealth for All

Nearly two decades after Portugal joined the wealthy European Union, poverty and social exclusion continue to plague a full 20 percent of the population.

EDUCATION: Fighting Computer-Assisted Plagiarism in Latin America

Student plagiarism is becoming more and more common in Latin America, with the infinite possibilities offered by the Internet to those who follow the law of least effort.

/CORRECTED REPEAT*/RIGHTS-KENYA: Land Battle Moves to the Courts

Displaced in the course of one administration, left landless by the next, Wanjiku Njoroge Rumiritu's tale is not a pleasant one.

POLITICS-US: Another Bush Disaster Nominee Assailed

A month after President George W. Bush's national disaster chief resigned after bungling the government's response to Hurricane Katrina, his nomination of a right-wing Republican politician as the State Department's next director for refugee programmes is coming under sharp attack.

RIGHTS-MALAYSIA: Ethnic Indians Demand Fair Share of Prosperity

More then 150 years after arriving here to work British-owned rubber plantations, Malaysia's minority Indian community is drifting aimlessly and with little to call their own in their adopted land.

CHILE: New Law Stiffens Penalties Against Domestic Violence

The creation of family courts in Chile has sparked a avalanche of reports of domestic violence, raising the visibility of a problem that was practically hidden behind closed doors until only a decade ago.

PAKISTAN: Chaos Prevails in Lost Paradise

Finally spotting a truck laden with relief material, on the weekend after the Oct 8 temblor laid waste this alpine paradise, Mohammed Nazir rushed to get hold of anything that might be flung his way.

REFUGEES: EU Urged to Take Humane Approach

The European Union is coming under increasing pressure to revise its current approach to asylum and migration after sub-Saharan African immigrants died trying to cross over into Spanish territory.

POPULATION-SOUTH AFRICA: Inter-Country Adoption a Last Resort, or Best Hope?

It seems an obvious response to a pressing problem. If there are thousands of orphaned children in South Africa who cannot find a home in their extended families, then why not place more emphasis on adoption? And if adoptive families cannot be found locally, why not look abroad?

PAKISTAN: Relief on War Footing

The round-the-clock buzz of activity on the tarmac of the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) museum here could be mistaken for war mobilisation. But the enemy is a Himalayan winter setting down on the stunned survivors of Saturday's earthquake which may have killed 100,000 people in disputed Kashmir.

ENVIRONMENT: Millions Flee Floods, Desertification

The United Nations estimates that upwards of 50 million people may be on the move in five years due to environmental disasters and degradation.

POPULATION-BRAZIL: Reaching Out to Young Men to Fight Gender Violence

Watching his mother receive frequent beatings at the hands of his stepfather, until she finally lost her hearing in one ear, made him a quiet teenager who keeps his gaze glued to the floor.

POPULATION: Better for Women Also Better for Men

Development needs a new boost - a change in male attitudes, says Thoraya Ahmed Obaid, executive director of the United Nations Population Fund.

POPULATION-SOUTH AFRICA: “Men Must Work with Other Men”

For Tukisang Senne, programme director at the Planned Parenthood Association of South Africa (PPASA), the battle to put men and women on an equal footing has to be waged on various fronts.