RIGHTS: U.S. Giving Immigrants Green Light But Not Green Card

Flora Carolina Rodriguez Santillan was dismissed from her job at a retail chain after five years because the papers that prove she has been approved as a Lawful Permanent Resident (LPR) of the United States are caught up in a government document logjam.

POLITICS-SUDAN: No Peace in the South Without Stability in Darfur – Annan

United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan says mediators in peace talks for south Sudan should turn their attention to the western region of Darfur, as any peace deal for the south will be compromised by a continued humanitarian crisis in Darfur.

INDIA: Poverty, Gender Imbalances a Lethal Mix for HIV/AIDS

In this village in India's north-western state of Rajasthan, Kamla, a woman in a long and flowing sequined skirt and a bright pink headscarf speaks of the hurdles in spreading awareness of HIV/AIDS among other village women.

HEALTH-EAST TIMOR: Hip-Hop and Rock for Condoms Challenge Church

Musicians in the predominately Catholic East Timor are taking their HIV/AIDS message directly to the people by circumventing official Church policy that bans the use of condoms.

RIGHTS-CUBA: Door Opens for Sexual Diversity

The semi-nude bodies of men interlaced in a passionate embrace seems to stun the Cuban audiences in every performance of ''The Life and Death of Pier Paolo Pasolini'', the play about the Italian filmmaker who was assassinated in 1975, and about discrimination, conventionalisms and mediocrity.

POLITICS-AFRICA: Women Charting the Continent’s Future

"We must congratulate Rwanda for achieving 48.8 percent of women representation in parliament. This is the highest in the world. It means gender parity is no longer a dream but a reality in Africa," said Lulu Xingwana, South Africa's Deputy Minister of Minerals and Energy, to thunderous applause from over a thousand women who gathered in the capital, Pretoria, this week.

POLITICS: U.S., U.N. Withhold Genocide Label for Sudanese Crisis

The humanitarian crisis in the Darfur region in Sudan has reached deadly proportions: thousands killed, one million people displaced, over 150,000 refugees fleeing into neighbouring Chad and entire villages wiped out by marauding militia groups.

ARGENTINA: Once Upon a Time, There Was a Middle Class

In the 1980s, workers at Argentina's former state oil monopoly YPF formed part of the country's large middle class and could easily imagine their sons and daughters making it to the university.

SRI LANKA: Scourge of Child Sex Tourism Tarnishes Country’s Image

As tourism begins to overtake traditional sources of employment in Sri Lanka, children and young people are encouraged to migrate to tourist areas, in hopes they can earn an income for themselves and their families. The lure of this easy money has caused many young Sri Lankans, including children, to trade their bodies

HEALTH-AFRICA: Pregnant Women Beware

A decade after the United Nations International Conference on Population and Development, maternal mortality continues to plague Africa. Delegates to a meeting held in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, recently heard that of the 585,000 deaths caused every year by obstetric complications, many occur in sub-Saharan Africa.

RIGHTS-CAMBODIA: AIDS Orphans Turn to Streets for Survival

For six-year-old Samnang, life offers little hope. The Cambodian boy has been orphaned by the death of his parents due to AIDS, and has recently tested positive for HIV.

RIGHTS-CHILE: Trafficking of Women an Invisible Trade

Anita Alvarado has made a place for herself in the media spotlight as the ''Chilean geisha'' who worked as a prostitute in Japan and is now a multimillionaire with best-selling memoirs, music albums and even a movie about her life..

HEALTH-IRAN: Drug Abuse among Youth Getting ‘Out of Control’

Drug abuse among Iranian youth is going out of control, campaigners and residents here say, leaving many of those on the front line in the battle against narcotics trafficking and use frustrated, if not resigned to failure.

MIGRATION-U.S.: Latinos or Chaos

If all the people of Latin American origin were to disappear from the United States, where they represent around 14 percent of the population of 290 million, chaos likely would ensue.

ENVIRONMENT: Shell Faces Global Attack

The giant oil company Shell ran into a barrage of charges from around the world Wednesday over the damage it is causing to health and the environment.

RIGHTS-SOUTHERN AFRICA: Human Trafficking Stretches Across the Region

Young South African women are being given false job offers to lure them into prostitution in Macau, a former Portuguese colony now under Chinese control, says the International Organisation for Migration (IOM).

HEALTH-AFRICA: Polio Reaches Sudan’s Conflict-Ridden Darfur

The spread of poliomyelitis from Nigeria to the beleaguered Darfur region of western Sudan is fuelling fears that Western and Central Africa are on the verge of the worst polio epidemic in years.

DEVELOPMENT-CHINA: Consumer Power Corners Multinationals

Big multinationals might be waxing lyrics about the potential of a booming Chinese market. On the other hand, however, many of them are also getting an unwelcome taste of equally vibrant consumer power.

REFUGEE DAY-SUDAN: The Desperate Plight of Darfur

"The toll on children is most worrying," says James Elder, Communications Officer for the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), about the situation in Darfur, western Sudan.

REFUGEE DAY-COLOMBIA: The Smell of Panic

Panic has a smell and even a sound of its own, perhaps a heartbeat or a way of breathing, ''something you can't explain,'' says United Nations official Alfredo Witschi-Cestari.

REFUGEE DAY: Searching for a Place Under the Sun

A new mass of wandering people is escaping their homeland in search of a better life. They are not driven by political persecution, but by deforestation, global warming, natural catastrophes, and nuclear and industrial disasters.