POPULATION: Liberia Refugees Flee Trouble for Trouble

Ongoing fighting in Liberia is aggravating a refugee crisis that threatens the fragile stability in West Africa, humanitarian relief groups say.

AGRICULTURE-NICARAGUA: ‘March of Hungry’ Negotiates with Gov’t

A promise by the Nicaraguan government to distribute 3,409 hectares of farmland to jobless rural labourers within the next month and a half was the first victory scored by the ''march of the hungry''.

RIGHTS-INDIA: Physical Attacks, Abuse Plague Activists

It was nine months ago that Aroyga Mary Lucia, a lawyer and 'dalit' (low-caste Hindu) activist, was assaulted by goons in her own house as she was preparing to take a 19-year-old rape victim for medical test.

RIGHTS: Anti-Abortion Battle Threatens Women’s Health – Activists

Women's health is threatened by an effective global campaign being waged by conservative Roman Catholic organisations from the United States, in harmony with the policies of President George W. Bush, of Protestant faith, and the diplomatic efforts of the Vatican, say reproductive rights activists.

POLITICS-AZERBAIJAN: Son Takes the Presidential Path

Ilham Aliyev, son of ailing President Heidar Aliyev was named prime minister of Azerbaijan Monday. That puts him in line to succeed his father as president.

VIETNAM: Workers Cope with Too Much Work, Too Little Recreation

Truong Thi Thu, a labourer at a shoe factory here, is of its best workers and earns 930,000 Vietnamese dong (60 U.S. dollars) a month, not bad for a migrant worker like her who left her village in central Vietnam five years ago.

SOCIETY-CHILE: No Poor Wanted in Eco-Community

Residents of the exclusive Peñalolén Ecological Community, in the Andean foothills of the Chilean capital's outskirts, are refusing to accept the relocation of poor families to nearby areas.

REFUGEES-EUROPE: Call for Cannons Finds an Echo

Italy has asked for long-term measures to deal with illegal immigration after another 200 migrants landed recently on the tiny island Lampedusa.

POPULATION: U.S. ‘Stretching’ Borders to Block Migrants

In a case that highlights the growing U.S. effort to detain migrants long before they set eyes on this country's borders, five crew members of an Ecuadorian fishing vessel called the San Jacinto pled guilty in a federal court here this month to conspiracy to encourage illegal immigration.

RIGHTS-INDIA: Self-healing Brings Ex-Sex Workers Back to Society

Shanti, 19, had never stepped outside her village of Thakarnagar in India's West Bengal state. So when her best friend invited her to board a bus to a neighbouring village to meet some 'relatives', she readily agreed.

RIGHTS: Burmese Caught between Poverty in India, Oppression at Home

'Burma Town' at the far west end of India's sprawling national capital holds no ethnic exotica beyond a few hundred, sarong-clad men and women huddled into hopelessly cramped, one-room tenements that have sprung up in the urban village of Budhela.

POLITICS: U.N. Authorises Military Force in Congo

The United Nations will try to stop widespread genocidal killings in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) by arming its peacekeepers with a robust new mandate, including a licence to kill.

IRAQ: Human Rights Become an Alien Force

Three months after the end of major hostilities in Iraq, human rights remain a controversial issue in a country alien to the concept for at least the past three decades.

EDUCATION-VIETNAM: Diploma Mania, Cheating Worry Officials

It has become all too easy to spot an examination venue in Vietnam from the telltale litter of hundreds of tiny white pieces of paper, closely printed, that lie underfoot.

POLITICS-MEXICO: Zapatistas Emerge from the Shadows

The leftist Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN), based in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas, have emerged from the shadows after two years of near silence to announce structural changes and new actions that "not everyone is going to like" and to break off ties with groups that the mostly indigenous guerrilla organisation says treat it as a sort of "Cinderella".

RIGHTS-BANGLADESH: Returning Women Migrants Get No Warm Welcome

Ask a male Bangladeshi villager how AIDS has been spreading in his country and nine out of 10 will reply, "Bangladeshi 'nongra' (dirty) women bring it from outside".

RIGHTS-INDONESIA: Open Borders Ease Trafficking in Babies

Yanti (not her real name) recalls the night last year when she and two friends escaped from a house in Sarawak, eastern Malaysia, where they were being kept along with their weeks-old babies.

/Int’l Day of Indigenous People/RIGHTS: UN Indigenous Body Granted Another Year of Existence

The United Nations has extended through 2004 the mandate of the Working Group on Indigenous Populations, an entity that some industrialised countries are trying to quash.

POPULATION: Poorer Nations Struggle With Ballooning Birth Rates

Population growth rates in developed and developing countries are becoming increasingly skewed, posing challenges to governments worldwide, according to the 2003 World Population Data Sheet released on Tuesday.

CUBA-US: Return of Illegal Migrants a Sign of Improved Relations?

Cuba and the United States achieved at least a slight rapprochement in their decades-old conflict Monday by reaffirming bilateral migration policy after the U.S. government sent the 15 Cubans aboard a stolen boat back to the socialist-run island.

RIGHTS-IRAN: Some Afghans Return Home, Others Stay Put

Mohammad Saber, one of several men crowding the Afghan embassy here, sighs and says that if he could get even a glass of tea and loaf of bread with what he makes back home, he would not have crossed the border to Iran.