POPULATION: Young Koreans Shed Past to Embrace Modern Japan

The controversial identity of Japan's Korean population, the largest ethnic minority in the country, is undergoing drastic changes these days given new security threats from North Korea and the emergence of a fledging multicultural society at home.

HEALTH: Deaths Outnumber Births as AIDS Ravages Southern Africa

The HIV/AIDS epidemic, which continues to devastate mostly the world's poorer nations, has increased the rate of mortality and slowed population growth, according to a new U.N. report released Thursday.

RIGHTS-GABON: Hopefully, the Beginning of the End for Child Traffickers

Children’s rights activists have long expressed concern over the extent of child trafficking and exploitation in West Africa. Recent events in Gabon might give them cause for hope, however.

MEXICO: First Step on Long Road to Granting Emigrants the Right to Vote

The lower house of the Mexican parliament has taken the first step towards making it possible for Mexicans living abroad to vote in the 2006 presidential election. But most observers say there is little chance that the measure will actually go into effect by then.

SRI LANKA: Peace Still A Long Way from Govt. Ceasefire With Tigers

As the sun sets in this town that has been at the heart of Sri Lanka's two-decade-long ethnic conflict, gentle reminders of life in a time of peace emerge.

TSUNAMI IMPACT: For Phuket Vendors, It’s an Uphill Struggle to Restart

With the identification of the dead almost complete and most of the bodies of foreign tourists repatriated to their respective countries, reconstruction, now, is moving at a frantic phase on the beachfronts of tsunami-hit Phuket island in southern Thailand. But many of the locals here are unhappy.

FOOTBALL-SPAIN: United Against Racism

The Spanish government, professional associations and civil society organisations resolved on Tuesday to join forces to fight racism in football, in view of the harm it causes and the way it reflects on society.

TSUNAMI-IMPACT: Counselling With a Local Sri Lankan Touch

When Carolina Delima walks through a refugee camp set up in the centre of this town in eastern Sri Lanka, a cry of glee pours forth from children with names like Vinod, Subodan and Sivaraj.

POPULATION-NIGERIA: Should Census Make Discretion the Better Part of Valour?

More than a decade after its last headcount, Nigeria is preparing to conduct the country's fifth census this year. However, religion and ethnicity - long the bane of national life - appear set to bedevil the process.

TSUNAMI-IMPACT: Weavers Return to Break the Silence of Death

If Sri Lanka needs a symbol of hope and courage for its battered coastal communities to get back on their feet, then Abdul Sattar Sithy Bashira would be a prime candidate.

NEPAL: Pressure Builds on King’s Three-Year Plan

The weekend was a glorious one in Nepal's capital. Under a clear blue sky residents hung washing to dry on rooftops and stripped toddlers of layers of winter clothes so the hot sun could warm their dimpled bodies.

RIGHTS-SOUTH ASIA: India in Royal Pickle Over Nepal

King Gyanendra's Feb. 1 'royal coup' has presented Nepal's big neighbour India with one of its biggest foreign policy challenges in recent times and one with no quick or easy resolution in sight, say analysts.

TSUNAMI IMPACT: Phuket Wants Tourists Not Aid Money

This idyllic island on the Andaman Sea in southern Thailand is recovering quickly from the devastating December tsunami seven weeks ago, thanks mainly to the resourcefulness of its people.

RIGHTS-SOUTH ASIA: India in Royal Pickle Over Nepal

King Gyanendra's Feb. 1 'royal coup' has presented Nepal's big neighbour India with one of its biggest foreign policy challenges in recent times and one with no quick or easy resolution in sight, say analysts.

TSUNAMI IMPACT: Phuket Wants Tourists Not Aid Money

This idyllic island on the Andaman Sea in southern Thailand is recovering quickly from the devastating December tsunami seven weeks ago, thanks mainly to the resourcefulness of its people.

TSUNAMI-IMPACT: Sri Lankan Widowers Share a Common Grief

Ramasamy Rajakumar spends his afternoons in the company of a few men who are united by a common thread of grief. They all lost their wives when the Indian Ocean tsunami struck. Some, like Rajakumar, also lost two children.

RIGHTS-US: Anti-Terrorist or Anti-Immigrant?

Ignacio, a 22-year-old Mexican, has decided to move up the date of his departure for the United States, after the "coyote" who has promised to get him across the Mexican-U.S. border warned him that the trip could be more difficult and costly come April or May.

POLITICS-INDIA: Muslims, Peasants Hold Key to Bihar Elections

Eastern Bihar, reckoned as India's most lawless region, completed this week the second and last phase of voting for a new provincial assembly in an election that is most likely to return to power the same coterie of politicians that have ruled the state for the past 15 years.

TSUNAMI-IMPACT: Tamil Group Offers Alternative to Sauna-Like Tents

For the past week, Thurai Chandrakumar has led a gang of 11 men in a construction spree aimed at building shelters with local conditions in mind. Here, the day gets progressively hotter and by mid-morning temperatures in this village are almost furnace-like.

CORRECTED REPEAT*/RIGHTS-US: Legal Limbo for Battered Women Seeking Asylum

Shortly before he left office, former Attorney-General John Ashcroft told employees at the Department of Justice that the United States is "a freer nation than before because our families can live peacefully in their communities, our wives, daughters and mothers can travel the streets safely, and our children are turning away from illegal drugs."

RIGHTS: Dozens of Minority Ethnic Groups Lack Citizenship Rights

At least 11 million people worldwide are "international orphans" - people without citizenship or nationality - who suffer discrimination, exploitation, and, in some cases, forced displacement, according to a new report by Refugees International (RI).