MEXICO: Pride in Indigenous Heritage – Literally a Thing of the Past

Mexico's National Museum of Anthropology and History (MNAH), one of the ten most important institutions of its kind in the world, is celebrating its 40th anniversary with cocktail receptions and new exhibitions. Sadly, however, there is little to celebrate for the impoverished descendants of the peoples whose cultures are proudly preserved in the museum's halls.

LABOUR-EU: Only A Few East Europeans Go West

When Marek and his wife Ania, both unemployed Polish nationals in their thirties, left their home country for Denmark on May 1 - the day of EU enlargement - they hoped to get dream jobs and start on a new life.

POLITICS: Sanctions Against Sudan a Non-Starter

The United Nations is reluctant to impose punitive economic sanctions on Sudan - accused of genocide in the politically troubled province of Darfur - because embargoes have a relatively poor track record, according to senior U.N. officials and diplomats.

MEXICO-US: Innocence Lost at the Border

"I had a really bad time on the trip to Tijuana, because the people (smugglers) who were taking us didn't give us food, and there were also problems with some Mexican police who treated us badly and wanted to detain us," said Erika, a 16-year-old Mexican who recently tried to make it into the United States.

INDIA: Activists Continue Fight to Decriminalise Homosexuality

While the Delhi High Court dismissed this month public interest litigation seeking to quash laws dating back to colonial times that make homosexuality a punishable offence, human rights activists have sworn to continue seek legal avenues to decriminalise gay sex between consenting adults.

POPULATION: Rising Growth Still an Issue, Says UNFPA

The U.N. Population Fund (UNFPA) is dispelling a widespread notion - prevalent mostly in Western countries - that population growth has ceased to be a serious socio-economic problem primarily because of declining numbers.

RIGHTS-KENYA: A Glimmer of Hope for the Ogiek

It's probably fair to say that the plight of the Ogiek receives little attention on a continent with more than its share of political and economic crises.

POPULATION-LATAM: Progress for Women, But Poverty Rates Still High

The countries of Latin America and the Caribbean have made progress in the past 10 years in terms of empowering women and ensuring access to sexual and reproductive health services.

HIV/AIDS-THAILAND: A Buddy and Hope for Life

While Charoen Orn-Norm and Aranya run a successful recycling business in this border town, just a stone's throw away from Burma, seldom, however, do their clients realise that one of them is HIV positive.

TECHNOLOGY-CAMBODIA: Ingenious Efforts Widen Road to Information

Situated on Cambodia's border with Laos and Vietnam in the north-east, Ratanakiri province is a largely unspoiled Eden of densely forest-covered hills and mountains, pristine rivers, streams, thousand-year old crater lakes and waterfalls.

HONG KONG: Democrats’ Lost Momentum Could Please China

Beijing's leaders could afford a wry smile when they heard that a political activist best known for burning the Chinese flag in public and carrying a coffin through the streets to commemorate the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre had been elected a Hong Kong legislator.

SUDAN: Death Rate Among Internally Displaced Soars in Darfur

The high mortality rates documented by the World Health Organisation (WHO) in the past few weeks in camps of internally displaced people in the region of Darfur in western Sudan are comparable to those seen in Rwanda during the genocide of 1994, said an expert from the United Nations agency.

ENVIRONMENT: Cities Given an Attitude Warning

Migration is leading to a new colour-coding that can be dangerous for city life, a new report warns.

INDIA: Census Error on Muslims Turns Grist for Communal Mill

Misleading census data showing a 33 percent rise in India's Muslim population for the decade ending 2001 but corrected afterwards, has become grist in the mill of pro-Hindu political parties defeated in the recent elections.

CHINA: Shanghai Breaks the Second-Child Taboo

One of China's national population models has backtracked on the rigid "one-child" policy by allowing some couples to have their second child and launching a campaign to shatter the myth of the DINK (double-income-no-kids) family as one of prosperity and success.

POLITICS-SUDAN: U.S. Declares Darfur Situation "Genocide"

U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell Thursday declared that the past 18 months of attacks by government forces and Arab militias on black African farmers in the western region of Darfur amounted to "genocide" and pledged to push hard at the U.N. Security Council for tough measures against Khartoum to stop it.

POLITICS-SUDAN: Ire on the Part of Government Officials

Sudan’s government has launched a scathing attack on the United States, accusing it of spearheading a campaign to have the United Nations apply sanctions against Khartoum over the crisis in Darfur.

DEVELOPMENT-ASIA: Caravan Calls For Food Sovereignty

As Malaysia reels from the stunning release of jailed ex-deputy premier Anwar Ibrahim after six years' imprisonment, food security campaigners and political activists in the region are hoping to extend 'reformasi' or democratic reforms to the agricultural sector as well.

RIGHTS-CHILE: Indigenous Activists Demand Fair Trials

Leaders of the Mapuche ethnic group in southern Chile tried under an anti-terrorism law accuse the courts of failing to guarantee them fair trials, and international and local human rights groups have called for an investigation into alleged irregularities.

HEALTH-LATIN AMERICA: Contrasts in Sexual and Reproductive Health Policies

Colombia, caught up in an armed conflict and with a hard-right government that tends to clash with rights groups and other civil society organisations, nevertheless has fairly advanced sexual and reproductive rights policies.

POLITICS: Darfur Overshadows the Peace Process in South Sudan

The crisis in the Sudan’s western region of Darfur has overshadowed the peace process in the south of the country, where more than 2 million people have been killed since 1983.