DEVELOPMENT: Strategies for Achieving Sustainable Cities

The mainstreaming of environmental planning and management as an integral part of public policies seems to be the only solution for a world where the population is becoming ever more concentrated in increasingly larger, poorer and more unmanageable cities.

ARGENTINA: Indigenous Villages on the Auction Block

The Argentine government has taken legal action to stop the imminent auction of a parcel of land in the northern province of Santiago del Estero that is home to 4,000 people, most of them of indigenous descent.

RIGHTS-ZIMBABWE: “I’m Ready to Stand in Front of the Gun and be Shot”

A coalition of more than 200 African and international civic groups has called on the United Nations and African Union to press for an end to evictions and demolitions that have left people across Zimbabwe homeless.

RIGHTS-MEXICO: Pride Parade Highlights Continued Discrimination

Anhalí is putting the final touches on the devil costume she plans to wear for the Pride Parade this Saturday in the Mexican capital, which is expected to draw around 60,000 members of the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (GLBT) community.

RIGHTS-INDIA: Mumbai’s Bar Show Goes On – For Now

Hundreds of thousands of women who sing and dance in the bars of the western Indian state of Maharashtra are likely celebrating the survival of their means of livelihood. On Thursday the governor returned unsigned an ordinance intended to ban the dance bars.

POLITICS: Burundi’s Peace Process Comes to the Crunch

With a local election under its belt, and legislative and presidential polls scheduled for the next two months, Burundi is entering the final stretch of a lengthy and difficult peace process.

FILM: Mexico-US ‘Devil’s Highway’ A Killer

In May 2001, a group of 26 undocumented Mexican immigrants crossed the border into the United States and headed north through an Arizona desert area so barren and hostile it is known as the Devil's Highway.

EUROPE: Rights of Refugees in Grave Danger, Warns Amnesty

The rights of refugees and immigrants are in grave danger in the European Union, Amnesty International's director in Spain, Esteban Beltrán, warned Monday.

REFUGEES-KENYA: Contraceptives – Both Needed and Scorned

As the international community marks World Refugee Day, a Somali woman's tale of how she helped fellow refugees terminate pregnancies has highlighted the shortcomings of reproductive health care in refugee camps.

REFUGEES: Australian Senate Wants Immigration Jail Closed

The Australian Senate has backed a motion that would result in the closure of the government-funded immigration prison on Nauru, where 46 mostly Afghani people, including four children, have been held for almost four years awaiting decisions on their application for refugee status.

REFUGEES: After the Struggle to Arrive in South Africa, a Struggle for Education

The effort to combine work and studies is taking its toll on Desiré Rwamagana, a Rwandan refugee who lives in South Africa’s commercial hub – Johannesburg.

REFUGEES: Italy Reluctantly Lets In a Trickle

Aki, a young Kurd, is among the lucky few to have got political asylum in Italy. But after months of pain and anxiety he is bitter even after his success.

REFUGEES-US: Some See Asylum-Seekers as Cure for Urban Decay

Fleeing civil war and economic and political chaos in their home country, they came to the United States a few years ago, where they tried to settle down in a small town. Though initially welcomed by the locals, they didn't have to wait long to face hostility and xenophobia.

LATIN AMERICA: Enterprising Women Reach Beyond Borders

Elbe "Beba" Luberto led a quiet, contented life in the Uruguayan countryside, with her husband, three children, five grandchildren, and a house that occupied all of her time. But things changed radically when she and a group of other women in the community formed a farming cooperative 18 years ago.

VENEZUELA: Sexually Exploited Teens Find a Way Off the Street

Teenage girls who are sexually exploited not far from the health and labour ministries, courthouse and Congress in the Venezuelan capital have found assistance in a shelter financed with international aid.

RIGHTS: Nearly 8 Million Refugees “Warehoused” Without Rights

Seven of every 10 of the world's roughly 11.5 million refugees have been "warehoused" for five years or more in countries that have denied them basic rights guaranteed under the 1951 Refugee Convention, according to the 2005 edition of the "World Refugee Survey" released Wednesday by the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI).

URUGUAY: A 13-Hour Respite from Homelessness

It's 7:00 PM and has already been dark for a while. Although the southern hemisphere winter has not yet officially begun, the cold on the streets of the Uruguayan capital attests otherwise.

POLITICS: For Somalia’s President, There’s Still No Place Like Home

For the moment, it is the homecoming that wasn’t. Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf left Kenya Monday to relocate his transitional government to Somalia. However, the flight carrying the head of state was subsequently diverted to Djibouti.

LATIN AMERICA: Advances on Paper No Guarantee of Real Progress

The growing political participation and influence of indigenous people in Latin America, which was recently noted in a World Bank report, has not yet led to a modification of their dire social and economic conditions or to a reduction in government resistance to addressing native peoples' demands for autonomy and respect for their cultures.

PORTUGAL: New Campaign Debunks Immigration Myths

"Thank you, Vassily. Immigrant Portugal, Tolerant Portugal." "We are grateful, and so are they." These slogans, accompanied by a picture of a Ukrainian worker, are part of a campaign launched in Portugal to debunk the myth that the arrival of foreigners has a negative impact on the country.

JAPAN: Tokyo Touting Tots

Record drops in the nation's birth rate for the past four years has finally prodded officials to suggest sweeping changes in Japanese society to rectify the situation, but experts say results could take longer than expected.