EUROPEAN UNION: Moving in the Direction of Common Immigration Policy

The European Union (EU) is to begin moving in the direction of a common immigration policy, although no specific timeframes have yet been set, according to the first agreement reached at the bloc's summit, which opened Friday in this southern Spanish city.

POPULATION: In Japan, Elderly Does Not Mean Inactive

Koji Iwatsuki, 62, retires this month after working

POPULATION: U.N. Agency Honours Women, Seeks Funds on Refugee Day

The United Nations paid special tribute Thursday to women refugees in commemoration of the second World Refugee Day.

RIGHTS-PAKISTAN: Honour Killings Belie Govt Claims of Action

The fact that as many as 211 Pakistani women perished in the name of "honour" in the first four months of the year belie claims by the military government that it has taken strict measures to stop this primitive tradition.

RIGHTS-BANGLADESH: Shelter Keeps Girls Away from Pull of Sex Trade

In one of the modest rooms lined with rows of three-tiered beds, a little girl points at her own nose and says she is learning the English words for 'nose' and 'apple'.

SRI LANKA: Livelihood Gives Women Way to Cope with Disabilities

In addition to grinding poverty, Hettihami Chandrawathie has to endure the pain of her son's illness, one that stunts growth.

POLITICS: Brazil May Gain its First Female Vice-President

Although women's activists in Brazil do not expect October's general elections to lead to a significant increase in the proportion of women in parliament, the country may gain its first female vice-president.

POPULATION-CANADA: New Rules Could Shut Out Most Migrants

More than 150,000 people who were qualified to immigrate to Canada could find themselves shut out of the country by new, retroactive changes to its immigration rules.

RELIGION-PAKISTAN: Mullahs Get Lessons in Everyday Problems

'Mullahs' or Islamic priests are usually the ones other people come to listen to, but they are the ones learning new subjects -- from women's rights to the environment, tolerance and children's health -- under a new course at a university here.

POPULATION-PERU: Growing Debate over Family Planning

Health authorities in Peru are increasingly inclined towards natural methods of birth control approved by the Catholic Church, a tendency that women's groups are fighting as they defend the government's strict family planning programmes in place for over a decade.

RIGHTS-KENYA: UNHCR Unable to Cope with Fleeing Somali Refugees

While Somali families are fleeing across the border into northern Kenya to escape clan fighting, the UN High Commissioner for Refugee (UNHCR) warns that it is unable to cope with some 4,000 refugees already there, whose condition is worsening by the day.

POPULATION-JAPAN: Fewer Women Choose to Become Mothers

After two years of marriage and a lot of agonising, Junko, 36, is having her first -- and what she describes as probably her only -- child in August.

LABOUR-SPAIN: Hundreds of Immigrants Refuse to End Sit-in

Hundreds of African immigrants are staging a sit-in at a university in the southern Spanish city of Seville, demanding that the government grant them residency status and work permits.

EUROPEAN UNION: Immigrant Reforms Endanger Rights, Warn Activists

The human rights of immigrants in the European Union are in danger, in light of recent statements by several of the bloc's leaders and moves to reform the related legislation, says Mustafá Mrabet, president of the Association of Moroccan Immigrant Workers in Spain.

FOOD: Activists Rule out Protests in Parallel Summit

Around 1,200 representatives of non- governmental organisations (NGOs) from 92 different countries will begin to gather Sunday in the Italian capital to present their points of view to the heads of state and government attending the World Food Summit: Five Years Later.

SPORTS-JAPAN: World Cup Enlivens Conservative Society

Yukio Kato, a company manager who has never been a soccer fan, rushes home these days to watch the World Cup on television every evening.

POPULATION: Report Sees More Refugees, Fewer Havens

The number of refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs) worldwide reached a seven-year high in 2001, a year marked by new restrictions on the ability of refugees to gain safe haven in rich countries after the Sep. 11 terrorist attacks in the United States, says a new report by a major U.S. advocacy group.

RIGHTS-MEXICO: Court Annuls Elections in Indigenous Community

A court in Mexico annulled the results of local elections that were based on indigenous "customs and habits", a traditional practice recognised by Mexico's laws as well as international conventions, but which some academics and legal experts consider anti-democratic.

POPULATION-COLOMBIA: Cities Unable to Handle War’s Displaced

Colombia's big cities lack the resources necessary to help the thousands of people who have been displaced from rural areas by the civil war, as municipal governments are unable to meet the basic needs of the poor already living in the urban centres, according to the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF).

SOUTH AMERICA: Argentine Crisis Spawns Shift in Immigration Trends

Argentina, for decades the main destination of immigrants in Latin America, has now become a source of emigrants. But neighbouring Brazil, the largest country in the region, lacks the economic or legal conditions to welcome surplus labour power from other South American countries.

CHILE: Immigrants from Region Put Tolerance to Test

A wave of Argentine immigrants is a new challenge facing Chile, where expressions of xenophobia towards massive inflows of Peruvians, Ecuadoreans and Bolivians have begun to be seen in the past few years.