POPULATION-ANGOLA: Challenges Face Refugees Back Home

Angola is a country in transition. "Refugees are moving, the displaced are moving and so are ex-combatants," says Kallu Kalumiya of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

AGRICULTURE: Tension Over Presence of ‘Brasiguayos’

Brazilian landowners in Paraguay are accused of gobbling up land and using unsustainable, polluting farming techniques, and some Paraguayans also complain of the heavy cultural influence along the border.

RIGHTS-AUSTRALIA: Summit Seeks Release of Asylum Seekers on Nauru

A summit of 10 refugee community support groups on Friday sought an end to the "limbo-like" status of 308 asylum seekers, mostly from Afghanistan and Iraq, stranded in an Australian government-funded immigration detention centre on the Pacific island nation of Nauru.

ENVIRONMENT: Communities Help Save a Symbol of Wild Pakistan

As the sun goes down behind the high peaks, a pair of wild goats descends to the river to quench their thirst. About 300 kilometres north-west of Pakistan, Afghanistan is but a valley away, and Tajikistan is closer than the capital, Islamabad.

COLOMBIA: Wave of Suicides Among Indigenous Youth

Leyra Salazar, a 15-year-old Embera Indian, hung herself in her home using a cord made out of strips of 'paruma', the traditional skirt worn by women of her ethnic group in Colombia.

HEALTH-PAKISTAN: Dearth of Trained Midwives Plagues Planners

In the village of Talhi, in Pakistan's Sindh province, water still tends to be transported on camel-back. That is how a midwife too gets her supply of water to carry out a delivery, and such a midwife is Margaret Gill.

VIETNAM: ‘Mothers for Hire’ Trend Jolts State and Society

Startled by cases of young migrant women offering themselves as 'mothers for hire' to childless couples, Vietnam's authorities and academics are struggling to understand the roots of the new trend. They blame social conditions, economic cycles and the erosion of morals, but are yet to come to grips with the scale of the practice.

ECONOMY-ZIMBABWE: No Barriers Too Great For Illegal Immigrants

It is the middle of the month and the buses headed for Francistown, the border town in neighbouring Botswana, 160 kilometres away, are leaving half full.

HEALTH-VENEZUELA: Children with HIV/AIDS Receive Free Medication

Carla is a 10-year-old Venezuelan who earns good grades and wants to be a doctor when she grows up. After school, where she is in the fourth grade, she takes hair-cutting classes. But she has a carefully guarded secret: she is living with HIV, the AIDS virus.

LABOUR-SOUTH KOREA: Gloom among Migrants Rises as Crackdown Looms

Chiran Tharaka killed himself by jumping off a subway platform onto the tracks just as a train came into a station near the South Korean capital. "He was in deep anguish," his friend Sanbat, also from Sri Lanka, recounted.

CHILE: Sustainable Development for Indigenous ‘People of the Sea’

The Lafkenche, a branch of Chile's Mapuche Indians whose name means ''people of the sea'', have new sources of income thanks to a successful sustainable development project, which has involved seafood farming, family gardens, greenhouses, reforestation and the creation of campgrounds.

MEXICO-U.S.: Undocumented Immigrants Will Have to Wait

Mexico and the United States took up dialogue again Wednesday after a prolonged cool period, but made only a few adjustments in the relationship, while the most crucial bilateral issue - a migration agreement - has been put off once again.

ENVIRONMENT: Java’s Forest Way Station For Protected Animals

''Early morning is the best time to listen to nature's orchestra,'' said Andi Prima Setiadi, director of the Cikananga Animal Rescue Centre. ''You'll hear singing you have never heard elsewhere.''

DEVELOPMENT-PAKISTAN: Reversing Growth in Poverty a Tall Order

As the time for breaking the fast approaches at the sunset, people start gathering outside a palatial house in a posh residential neighbourhood here in the Pakistani capital. They come for free food that is arranged by the rich occupants of the house for the poor and the needy during the holy month of Ramadan.

ECUADOR: Indigenous Leaders Angry at Vargas Llosa’s Remarks

Indian leaders in Ecuador reacted angrily to internationally renowned Peruvian writer Mario Vargas Llosa's criticism of indigenous movements in South America, which he said posed a danger to democracy because of the ''political and social disorder that they generate.''

BANGLADESH: Migrants Have Little to Show after Toiling Overseas

When it comes to going to Malaysia, 'Dui Nombore Jaoa' - which means 'going abroad illegally' - is a phrase much used in these villages of Sirajganj district in northern Bangladesh. So is 'Golakata' or 'picture-change passport', that is, a false passport with its photograph replaced.

CHILE: Mapuches Want to Shape Their Own Future

The Mapuches, the largest indigenous group in Chile, are organising to vindicate their ancestral rights in the framework of a growing movement of native peoples throughout Latin America.

LATIN AMERICA: Indians Shake Up the Political Scene

In less than a decade, Latin America's indigenous movements have toppled two presidents, carved out new pathways in political processes and left their mark on parliaments, ministries, municipal governments and even a vice-presidency.

POLITICS-WEST AFRICA: A 1961 Poll Haunts the Bakassi Hand Over

Efforts to implement a ruling on the border dispute between Nigeria and Cameroon have hit a snag, with the filing of a law suit by Cameroonian exiles who reject the decision.

ECONOMY-ZIMBABWE: Foreign Exchange Shortage, Remittance Boom

It could pass for an ordinary flea market selling cheap watches, toys, footwear and clothes imported from the Far East. What strikes the casual observer first is the sharp contrast between the makeshift shelters of black polythene, and the white robes worn by members of the Christian Apostolic sect who dominate the business in this Bulawayo market.

POLITICS-JAPAN: Looming Elections Leave Young Voters Cold

Come Nov. 9, the Sunday that Japan goes to the polls, Seiko Tayama won't be casting her vote. Instead, she's going to spend her time choosing a study programme to pursue in the United States.