/INT’L MIGRANTS DAY/MEXICO: One Million Return Home for Christmas from US

''I'm carrying gifts, but above all, nostalgia,'' says Víctor as he arrives at the airport in the Mexican capital.

SOCIETY: Vietnam Still Has No Room for Female Bodybuilders

''It's a pity we can't compete at the South-east Asian Games,'' laments Hoang Thi Thu, one of Vietnam's top female bodybuilders, referring to the regional competition underway here.

SOCIETY: China Gets Makeover through Beauty Pageants

Shedding lingering memories of grey Maoist uniforms and communist commissars who frowned on beauty contests, China has embraced the Miss World competition on Saturday as yet another status symbol in its long quest for world recognition.

POLITICS-LIBERIA: Delicate Process of Disarmament Gets Underway

Liberia's tortuous road to peace entered a crucial stage this week, when the United Nations launched a 15 million dollar programme to disarm over 40,000 combatants and reintegrate them into civilian life.

PARAGUAY: The Struggle for a Parcel of Land

''In our institution, we have some 50,000 landless peasants unable to grow food to feed their families,'' said a leader of the National Campesino Organisation, one of dozens of groups that represent small farmers in Paraguay, many of whom find themselves in the same situation.

RIGHTS-SRI LANKA: Shelter Welcomes Young Victims of Sexual Abuse

Among the homes that dot this picturesque town in Sri Lanka's central hill region is a building that has opened its doors to girls whose lives have been destroyed by their own relatives.

CULTURE-CHINA: Sex Comes out of the Closet

A succession of "kiss and tell" books and "one-night stand" diaries full of what critics call pornographic details have both fascinated and shocked Chinese readers in recent months, making official the emergence of the topic of sex out of the closet.

/INT’L MIGRANTS DAY/LABOUR-SOUTH KOREA: Undocumented Workers Risk Lives to Stay

Five migrant workers are huddled together in an empty farmhouse on an isolated hill. The four men, aged in their 20s to 30s, have no light or warmth, and live on a few packets of 'ramyon' or instant noodles.

COLOMBIA: Wind Energy to Bring Public Services to Wayuu Reserve

A wind generation park to be built on an indigenous reservation in the La Guajira peninsula, one of the poorest areas in Colombia, will provide funds for rural development efforts that are to benefit some 5,000 families.

COLOMBIA: Love Thyself, Use Condoms to Prevent HIV/AIDS – Campaign

"Because self-love is the most important, I'm the one who carries the condom," actress Diana Angel, a favourite among young Colombian television viewers, says confidently and directly into the camera.

BRAZIL: Deportee Warns of ‘Arbitrary’ U.S. Immigration Policies

"I have never felt so angry, humiliated and powerless in my life, and I think it will take me a long time to absorb what happened," said Brazilian cardiologist Marcia Barbosa after being deported from the United States.

POLITICS-CENTRAL AFRICA: Rwanda and the DRC Buoyant About Peace

Peace efforts in the Great Lakes region were taken a step further this week when leaders from Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo met in South Africa for talks.

JAPAN: Reports of Crime Fuel More Wariness of Foreigners

The Japanese government's wariness of foreigners in the wake of crime incidents has been rising, undercutting calls by activists for greater integration of immigrants and local businesses' demand for foreign migrant labour.

RIGHTS-CHILE: A ‘New Deal’ for Indigenous Groups

The death of the elderly Jérawr Asáwer, one of the last few Kawésqar Indians of unmixed ancestry, who played an important role in preserving the customs of her people in southern Chile, highlighted the danger of extinction faced by several small ethnic groups in this Southern Cone country.

SOCIETY-JAPAN: Wanted – Parents For 35,000 Children

The Sakamotos take care of ten, which leaves thousands of children in Japan still looking for a foster home. Their chances of finding one range from indifferent to possible, but not if this couple can help it.

RIGHTS: Refugee Activists Await U.S. Decision on Domestic Abuse

After years of beatings at the hands of her husband in Bangladesh, Yasmin could not take it any more. One day, without telling him, she bought a plane ticket and flew to New York.

PARAGUAY: Slumdwellers Face Stiff Opposition in Struggle for Housing

''Marquetalia was even accused of being a nest of terrorists with links'' to the Colombian guerrillas, says a former legal adviser to the shantytown that carries that name, one of hundreds in Paraguay.

ENVIRONMENT: Famine Stalks Northern Bangladesh

In the first week of November in Bangladesh, those living in the country's northern districts are usually hard at work harvesting the winter paddy crop after two lean months. Not this year. For an estimated seven million people, the seasonal lack of food has turned into near-famine conditions.

VIETNAM: Villagers Build Lives Out of Unexploded Bombs

Driving through Khe Sanh now, one could miss the handful of monuments that mark the site of the bloodiest battle of the American War, known to most of the world as the Vietnam War.

RIGHTS: Homosexuals Live Dangerously amid Hate, Discrimination

Images of men in white, their faces covered with white cloth as they were being hauled by a cordon of policemen, played out many times before a hushed audience here.

POPULATION: Annan Calls for U.N. Migration Agency

A single global agency should be created to deal with the wide range of issues surrounding the increasingly important migration phenomenon, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said Friday.