POPULATION: A Giant Leap From Rhetoric to Reality?

The largest gathering of world leaders meeting at the United Nations last month declared that the international community must keep gender equality, HIV/AIDS and reproductive health at the top of the global agenda over the next decade.

POPULATION: In Tamil Nadu, Women Lead the War Against HIV

When a group of HIV-positive women dared go public with their health status at a modest function in early October, it was a revolution for this conservative town, famed for its ancient granite pagodas that speak of development in another millennium.

SOUTH AFRICA: Putting Gender Equality at the Forefront of Local Government

A ground-breaking gender equality training course for local government officials has wrapped up in South Africa's financial capital, Johannesburg.

POLITICS: Malaysia, Thailand Refugee Row Deepens

A diplomatic row between Thailand and Malaysia over the fate of 131 Thai Muslims who fled to Malaysia in August, allegedly to escape ethnic violence and repression, has worsened as it begins to gain international attention.

RIGHTS-SOUTH AFRICA: Refugees Adopt a “Wait and See” Approach

Refugees and civil society groups have reacted cautiously to statements by a high-ranking South African official condemning the treatment of refugees by police.

POPULATION: Youth Unemployment Hits All-Time High

With nearly half the world's population of six billion people under 25 years old, the U.N. warned this week that poverty and lack of education is creating a new generation of marginalised youth.

CENTRAL AMERICA: Environmental Damages Drive Up Death Toll from Storms

Environmentalists are pointing out that the damages caused by tropical storms this week in southern Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador and Nicaragua, which left at least 165 dead, were foreseeable.

RIGHTS-COLOMBIA: For Millions, Nowhere Left to Run

Forced off their ancestral land by right-wing paramilitaries, leftist guerillas and the army, more than a million people have arrived in Colombia's cities in search of jobs and housing, but are getting little help from the government, say United Nations officials and development activists working there.

POLITICS-LIBERIA: Better Some Right to Vote Than None?

Liberians go to the polls next week for their country's first general elections since civil war was brought to a halt in the West African state in 2003.

RIGHTS-US: Hiring with One Hand, Deporting with the Other?

Even as the U.S. Department of Homeland Security refuses to guarantee that immigrants displaced by Hurricane Katrina will not face deportation if they seek government help, the agency has suspended sanctions against employers in the Gulf region who hire undocumented workers.

EUROPE: Parliament Raises Refugee Rights

The debate over the European Union's new asylum policy escalated this week as disparities emerged between European Commission and the European Parliament.

RIGHTS: EU Plans to Keep Asylum Seekers at Bay

New European Union proposals foresee the creation of 'regional protection centres' in sub-Saharan Africa and in three former Soviet states for people seeking asylum in EU member states.

REFUGEES-YEMEN: Calm Waters Bring New Danger

Yemenis are getting worried now that the sea will be calmer until March. It is the time of the year when thousands of Somali and other African refugees sail in.

HEALTH: Uzbeks Pay for Past Environmental Sins

Asked about the health system when this country was part of the Soviet Union, Gulbabor, a mother and accountant, mused: ''It was all free of charge in Soviet times and now we need to pay for everything. Money is tight''.

RIGHTS-FRANCE: Grow Up and Get Out

Eighteen-year-old student Guy Effeye from Cameroon got a year's study permit in Paris last week. It marked a symbolic victory for a long campaign.

RIGHTS: Uniformed Terror Stalks Southern Thailand

From the tea shop that she runs with her husband, Maye Leh surveys the silence that has descended on the surrounding small houses with cracked walls, shut windows and closed doors on a late Sunday morning.

PARAGUAY: The Struggle Against Child Labour Is Just Beginning

Derlis's day begins at 5:00 AM, when his mother wakes him up to go to work. At the age of 12, he is one of the main breadwinners in his family, helping to support three younger siblings, ages 2, 7 and 9.

CHILE: Indigenous Leader Fights Hurdles to Become Candidate

A Mapuche indigenous leader, Aucán Huilcamán, whose bid to run in Chile's Dec. 11 presidential elections has been blocked by legal formalisms, could overcome the hurdles and thus help democratise an electoral system that discriminates against indigenous people.

MILLENNIUM GOALS: Corruption, Worst Hurdle in Asia-Pacific

Corruption is a major hurdle that stands in the way of governments in the Asia-Pacific region, trying to lift millions of people out of poverty and hunger, says U.N. Undersecretary General Kim Hak-Su.

BOLIVIA: Fighting Disaster on Two Fronts

Forest fires that have already devastated 800,000 hectares of Amazon jungle and grassland in northern Bolivia, along with heavy snowfall and intense cold in the Andean highlands in the south, forced the government to declare vast extensions of the country a disaster zone.

DEVELOPMENT: Making Children the Sixth Pillar of Islam

The Islamic world, which encompasses nations as diverse in wealth and culture as Niger and Saudi Arabia, has some of the highest child mortality rates in the world, says a new report that calls on Islamic states to make children the focal point for greater unity and solidarity.