JAPAN: Worship of War Dead Rekindles Brutal Memories

Post-war Japan, unlike post-war Germany, has been never able to face its brutal wartime record in any serious, self-reflective manner. And this year's anniversary of the end of World War II, comes at a time when the country is undergoing a nascent nationalist rise - much to the worry of Japan's Asian neighbours, in particular China.

INDIA: WHO Hurting Cheap AIDS Drugs Industry – Experts

Indian medical experts see the hand of powerful Western drug manufacturers in the World Health Organisation's withdrawals of its recommendations, this month and earlier in May, for some of India's cheap and popular combination drugs against HIV/AIDS using generic 'copycats.'

RIGHTS-ARGENTINA: Kolla Indians Denounce Abuses in Land Conflict

In the latest episode of conflicts over indigenous land rights in Argentina, Kolla Indians in the northwestern province of Salta complained this week that they were brutally beaten by employees of a sugar company that is laying claim to their traditional land.

POPULATION-PHILIPPINES: One, Two and Stop, Urge Congressmen

''In China, they stop at one. Indonesia stops at two. In the Philippines, they stop at ...4 a.m." Jokes like these flooded the simple text messaging systems of cellular phones as a debate brewed over a proposed two-child policy in Congress, suggesting why such a measure could not succeed in this country.

DEVELOPMENT-ARGENTINA: Utter Poverty in Former Reserve

The cows in this arid former nature reserve in northwestern Argentina are so bony that they do not even look like they belong to the same species as their robust cousins to the south, in the rich pampas (grasslands) of the central part of the country.

LABOUR-SPAIN: Summer Vacation Not for Everyone

The number of employees who sign temporary work contracts week after week, and thus have no right to paid vacation, is increasing among young people in Spain. But immigrant workers have even more to complain about, because they are offered no job contracts or benefits at all.

MEXICO: Sectarian Violence Wreaks Havoc in Tzotzil Community

Impunity and political and religious intolerance will lead to an increase in sectarian violence in the highlands city of San Juan Chamula in the southernmost Mexican state of Chiapas over the next few months, warn human rights activists.

AGRICULTURE-ARGENTINA: Trespassers in the Nature Reserve

The Argentine government's decision to sell off a nature reserve in the northwestern province of Salta for farmland has not only serious environmental implications, but also shapes the future of a community who do not want to leave their land at any price.

/ARTS WEEKLY/CULTURE-INDIA: Happiness is One Very Big Family

Dining with the world's largest 178-member joint family in India's southern Karnataka state is a hospitable but hurried affair.

ENERGY-JAPAN: Nuclear Accident Shakes Public Confidence

Japan's worst accident at a nuclear power plant has shaken public confidence in the industry's safety record with activists blaming the country's lax nuclear regulations for the mishap that killed four and injured seven others at the plant west of the capital.

RIGHTS: The ‘Invisible’ Citizens of Indonesia

Sofi Semiun was born 30 years ago but until now her birth has not yet been registered.

CANADA: Ottawa Wants Churches to Turn Away Refugees

Six weeks ago Fred Cappuccino, a 78-year-old retired Unitarian minister, went into sanctuary in his own church to protest Canada's refugee deportation policy.

RIGHTS: EU Accused of Violating Commitments on Refugees

A proposed European Union (EU) directive imposing tighter restrictions on granting political asylum is causing major concern to refugee councils across the 15 nations that comprised the EU until the bloc's May 1 expansion to 25 countries.

RIGHTS-INDIA: Supreme Court Backs Victims of Gujarat Pogrom

India's Supreme Court has indicated its determination to ensure that victims of rape and murder in the 2002 anti-Muslim pogrom in western Gujarat state ruled by the pro-Hindu Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) get justice.

INDIGENOUS PEOPLES DAY: Genocide It Is

When the Belgian Defence Ministry earlier this year blamed North America for the world's worst ever genocide over its killing of millions of indigenous peoples, outrage at the claim spotlighted a topic that rarely enters the public realm but has long been accepted by many native Americans and their supporters.

POLITICS-US: Terror Alert Resounds in Muslim Communities

Sitting on a sofa in the corner of his living room, Robert Hall turns on the television to watch the evening news on a major network station. He tries to focus on the programme, but cannot. He turns to another station and then another. With a remote control in his right hand, he flips channels for a few minutes and then turns off the TV.

DEVELOPMENT-SIERRA LEONE: Freetown Shackled by Garbage

Winstanley Johnson will probably go down in history books for the fact that earlier this year, he became the first elected mayor in 30 years of Sierra Leone's capital - Freetown. As he picks his way around the rubbish heaps in the city, however, there may well be times when he wonders whether it's worth having this honour.

POLITICS-SUDAN: Needed in Darfur – Water, but not Rain

While the flurry of diplomatic activity around developments in the western Sudanese region of Darfur continues, heavy rains are complicating efforts to alleviate the humanitarian crisis there.

INDIA: Polio Eradication Flounders Over False Rumours, Beliefs

Global plans to eradicate the polio virus continue to flounder in a handful of districts in India's Uttar Pradesh state that adjoin the national capital.

LABOUR-MALAYSIA: Abused Sikh Workers Left High and Dry

Darshan Singh's story is all too familiar for many human rights activists. He was recruited from the Indian state of Punjab to work in a Malaysian company. But things soon turned nasty when the labour recruiter pocketed all his salary, housed him in a crammed place, fed him flour and lentils and went further to abuse and torture him.

MEXICO: Social Security Workers Fight Even ‘Bandaid’ Reform

The legislative reform passed by the Mexican Congress Thursday will merely put a bandaid on the critically ill Social Security Institute (IMSS), while opening the floodgates of a potentially huge labour conflict.