LABOUR-PHILIPPINES: Nurses’ Exodus Making Health System Ill

Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo brimmed with pride when the leaders of Singapore and China said at the recent SARS summit that Filipino nurses were performing admirably during the health crisis, but that praise also draws attention to one of the country's biggest illnesses - the exodus of its best nurses.

VIETNAM: Unexploded Bombs Show How War Wounds Outlive the Conflict

The land around this central Vietnamese province holds no affection for humans.

RIGHTS-ECUADOR: Colombians and Peruvians, Targets of Xenophobia

Ingrid, a 32-year-old Colombian woman who has lived in Ecuador for seven years, recently went to a local police station to report the theft of her cell-phone, and was told that they did not register complaints from Colombians, but against them.

VENEZUELA: Colombians Displaced by Violence to Win Refugee Status

At least 100,000 Colombians have fled across the border into Venezuela to escape the civil war in their country over the past three years.

SOUTH ASIA: People’s Groups Press Their Gov’ts on Peace

If governments in South Asia are pressing for stricter controls and harder international borders, its peoples are striving to revive the collective existence of communities and their close cultural affinities to promote peace in the subregion.

HEALTH-U.S.: Denial Marks South Asians’ HIV/AIDS Experience

Ask any HIV/AIDS outreach workers in New York how the city's fast growing South Asian community is faring in its new home and they are most likely to say, ''old habits die hard''.

BRAZIL: Class, Gender, Race Interwoven, Says New Equality Minister

In Brazil, where a majority of the population is black or mixed-race, people of colour are disproportionately represented among the poor - and the poorest of the poor are black women, one of whom has been named minister for the promotion of racial equality in the government of leftist President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

CUBA: Emigrants Lose Their Homes, Their Country – ‘And We Lose Them’

Marlene Guzmán and her uncles, aunts, siblings and cousins used to meet every Sunday at her grandmother's house in Havana. But the reunions are much smaller now, because so much of her family has emigrated to Miami since 1990.

AUSTRALIA: Gov’t under Pressure to Curb Trafficking of Women

Pressure is rising on the Australian government to tackle a number of thorny issues about the sex trade - the trafficking of women from Asia, the presence of illegal sex workers, and how the government is dealing with the problem.

POPULATION: U.S. Citizens Raise One Million Dollars for UN Agency

A U.N. agency that suffered a 34-million-dollar cut in funding from Washington because of charges that it promotes abortions, is one million dollars richer after U.S. citizens launched a grassroots campaign to make up for the crippling loss.

HEALTH: Welfare of Mothers in Poor Lands Lags Enormously – Report

The welfare of mothers in the world's richest and poorest nations remains separated by an enormous gulf, says the fourth annual 'Mothers' Index' released here Tuesday by international rights group Save the Children.

RIGHTS-JAPAN: Volunteers Taking on the Sex Industry

Jinaemon Sugawara is 80, feisty and still furious. It was 15 years ago that the spunky geriatric decided that enough was enough - he had seen the last smutty flier that he wanted to see, pasted inside a phone booth, carrying a young girl's picture and a telephone number.

BANGLADESH: Curbs on Women Migrants Eased, but Debate Unfinished

Bangladesh's decision to relax the latest restrictions on women seeking work abroad has rekindled a debate on the government's policies on women's rights, labour export, and its ability to protect its migrant workers.

/MAY DAY/ SPAIN: Women Bear Brunt of Growing Unemployment

Unemployment in Spain rose to 11.73 percent in the first quarter of this year - the highest rate among the 15 European Union (EU) countries. But women have been hit hardest, according to a new government survey.

/MAY DAY/ CENTRAL AMERICA: More than 1.9 Million Child Workers

More than 1.9 million children in Central America face a serious threat to their chance of obtaining an education and pulling out of the vicious circle of poverty because they have to earn their daily bread.

/MAY DAY/US-CENTRAL AMERICA: Anxiety Plagues Immigrant Workers

The United States government has not yet announced whether or not it plans to grant a new extension of the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) enjoyed by 347,000 Central American immigrants, which expires in the next few months.

/MAY DAY/THAILAND: Gov’t Eyes Crackdown on Undocumented Workers

As the Thai government's harsh crackdown on the drug trade draws to an end, the country's law enforcement officials have named a new group to face the heat of a similar high profile 'war' - undocumented migrant workers.

/MAY DAY/LABOUR: Fortress Japan Warming to Foreign Workers

Mai is 32, lives in Tokyo with her daughter, and has come a long way from her days of selling chicken in Thailand. A Thai, she asks that her Japanese name, 'Mai', be used to refer to her.

POLITICS-PAKISTAN: Boycott of U.S. Goods Still Going Strong

Several young men were looking forward to cool drinks, but were surprised to be told that one of the Pakistani capital's most frequented restaurants has taken U.S. soft drinks off its menu in protest against the U.S.-led military presence in Iraq.

NEPAL: Initial Peace Talks on, But Displaced People Still Lost

Initial peace talks between the Nepali government and the Maoist rebels get underway on Monday, but questions persist around how to protect the rights of the 'invisible' - the 150,000 people who have been internally displaced by the war.

BANGLADESH: Order on Juvenile Offenders Brings Relief, Concern

A High Court directive to the government, that children detained in Bangladesh's overcrowded and run-down jails must be transferred to correction centres, has been met with both relief and concern.