BOLIVIA: Indigenous Demands Are Justified, Says UN Rapporteur

Bolivia's current political crisis is largely the result of the marginalisation of the country's indigenous people, who are rightfully demanding the nationalisation of the country's natural resources and reforms of the state to recognise the country's true multicultural nature, a United Nations authority on indigenous people said in an interview with IPS Wednesday.

REFUGEES: North Koreans Escape – to Pain

The lucky escapees from famine and the Stalinist dictatorship of North Korean leader Kim Jung-Il face a living nightmare even when they reach prosperous and democratic South Korea, where food and free will are unrestricted.

HAITI: Drought, Poverty, Hunger – and Little Foreign Aid

The Sud province of Haiti is suffering a drought so severe that the planting season has been postponed. Yet no international financial assistance has come through to confront the crisis, reported Cécile Banatte, the local official designated by the interim government of Haiti to govern the largely agricultural southern province.

BRAZIL: Environmental Efforts Can’t Curb Social Impact of Amazon Pipeline

While Brazil's state-run oil company Petrobras has taken great pains to limit the environmental impact of gas pipelines in the Amazon region, it has proven more difficult to curb the social repercussions of large-scale projects in the midst of dire poverty.

LATIN AMERICA: ‘War on Terror’ Has Indigenous People in Its Sights

The "war on terror", identified in Amnesty International's annual report as a new source of human rights abuses, is threatening to expand to Latin America, targeting indigenous movements that are demanding autonomy and protesting free-market policies and "neo-liberal" globalisation.

RIGHTS: Over a Million Children May Face Abuse in Europe, Central Asia

More than a million children across Europe and Central Asia could be facing abuse - while in care facilities - UNICEF says.

RIGHTS: Drawing Up a World Map of Violence Against Children

Violence against children and adolescents, often meted out by their own parents, is an all-too-common problem around the globe. Corporal punishment, sexual abuse and the exploitation of minors through child labour are just some of the practices that are widespread but often invisible.

U.S.: No Place Like Home for Poor Under Bush Housing Plan?

The administration of President George W. Bush, having slashed hundreds of millions of dollars from public housing programmes, is proposing legislation that would reverse a decades-long federal policy that helped provide decent housing for some of the neediest people in the United States, say housing advocates.

LABOUR: 26 Percent Unemployment in Palestinian Territories

The Palestinian National Authority, the Israeli government, and the international community must make every effort to help ensure decent jobs for the men and women in the occupied Arab territories, recommends a new report by the International Labour Organisation (ILO).

HIV/AIDS-INDIA: Sex Workers Take On U.S. Holier-Than-Thou Bill

A battle cry by thousands of sex workers in the eastern Indian state of West Bengal threatens to trigger a worldwide protest against the United States for passing a bill that requires groups receiving U.S. AIDS relief money to publicly condemn prostitution.

MEDIA-AUSTRALIA: Ethnic TV Channel Makes Debut Over Satellite

Members of an Australian innovative ethnic community television channel, which lost its broadcasting license a year ago, have taken to space to get their programmes seen in the country. They have now decided to beam their shows to Australia using satellite.

FINANCE: Migrant Workers Said to Gain as U.S. Money Transfer Business Revamps

The cost of transferring money across borders continues to fall, giving millions of migrant workers in the United States new options for sending home billions of dollars in earnings.

RIGHTS-COLOMBIA: Nasa Indians Demand Urgent Action from UN

"The way the justice system used to work, you were innocent until proven guilty. Now it's the other way around," indigenous activist Alfredo Acosta told IPS.

HIV/AIDS-THAILAND: Mercy for Children in the Heart of a Slum

Though right smack in the middle of the Thai capital's largest slum, the Human Development Foundation teems with life and children struggling to live.

MIDEAST: Rehabilitation for Retired Child Camel Jockeys Gets Top Priority

Just as some governments in the Middle East are trying to stamp out the age-old practice of using child camel jockeys, they are also taking steps to deal with the physical and psychological abuses suffered by the children.

RIGHTS: U.N. Torture Panel Scores Nations

Sweden has violated international law by sending a suspected terrorist to Egypt where he was tortured, the U.N.'s Committee Against Torture has concluded.

LATIN AMERICA: Indigenous Leaders Say World Bank Should Take Its Own Advice

The World Bank should follow its own advice and modify its policies and prescriptions for Latin America, indigenous leaders told IPS.

LATIN AMERICA: Afro-Descendants Marginalised and Ignored

There are almost four times as many people of African descent in Latin America and the Caribbean than indigenous people, yet the poverty and discrimination they suffer are largely ignored, despite the fact that they are just as severe, or even worse, than the conditions facing the region's aboriginal inhabitants.

POLITICS-TOGO: A Meeting of Rivals

Newly-elected Togolese President Faure Gnassingbe and various opposition leaders were in the Nigerian capital, Abuja, Thursday for talks on resolving tensions in their West African country.

HEALTH: HIV/AIDS Campaigns Turning Communal, Say Hindu Leaders

It is still debatable whether India is sitting on a ticking HIV/AIDS time bomb. But pro-Hindu groups seem to have brought the issue to the forefront by serving notice to international funding agencies that campaigns showing the sub-continent's religious and cultural values in a poor light will no longer be tolerated.

BRAZIL: Landless March Biggest Ever to Reach Brasilia

Close to 12,000 landless peasants wrapped up a 17-day, 200-km march with a series of demonstrations in the Brazilian capital, which were marred by violence when riot police clashed with protesters, leaving several dozen wounded.