U.N. Chief Warns Big Business to Play by Ethical Rules

The United Nations is sending a strong message to the world's corporate sector: abide by the rules of social and ethical conduct or risk being politically ostracised.

A Reform Movement by and for Undocumented People

Hundreds of grassroots organisations came together at the U.S. Social Forum here to discuss strategies in the fight for immigration policy changes that would put an end to criminalisation and the militarisation of the border with Mexico.

DEVELOPMENT-ZIMBABWE: Selling Scrap Metal to Scrape By

Gugulethu Mkhwananzi is another one of the many unemployed women who have become features of everyday life in Bulawayo’s poor working class suburbs as she moves from house to house, looking for "rusted gold", or scrap metal.

“Excluded Workers” Move from Shadows to Negotiating Table

The U.S. labour movement needs to be reorganised from the bottom up to include domestic workers, day labourers, restaurant workers, taxi drivers, farm workers, incarcerated workers, guest workers and those in the "right to work" states.

RIGHTS: Problems Beset Cambodia’s Anti-Trafficking Campaign

Worrying trends continue to plague Cambodia and provide considerable concern for the future despite the gains it has reportedly made in combating human trafficking.

GUATEMALA: Giving Poor Women Entrepreneurs a Boost

Rosenda Gómez, a 53-year-old mother of five, knows all about challenges. To overcome them, she started a modest sausage business in Guatemala, and thanks to her leadership skills and training and other support she received, she is now an example of the economic empowerment of women.

LABOUR-US: Domestic Workers Unite for Their Rights

Ephese speaks rapidly, her hands sweeping the air around her for emphasis. Peach-tipped fingernails come to rest momentarily on her peach-coloured skirt as she leans forward, eyes intent behind wire-rimmed glasses. Her French is direct; her words uncompromising.

Finding Lessons of Solidarity in Auto Industry Shake-Up

As thousands of people from around the world prepare to converge in Detroit, where expectations are high for the Jun. 22-26 U.S. Social Forum, activists and auto workers hope the meet will be an opportunity to chart a sustainable future for an industry that provides 1.7 million U.S. jobs.

LATIN AMERICA: Photos a Leveller for Maids and Their Employers

Fifty pairs of women -- maids and their employers -- from Argentina, Chile and Colombia abandoned their daily routines to pose for photographs for a project about the hierarchical relationship that unites them.

SOUTH-EAST ASIA: Human Trafficking Exposes ASEAN’s Underbelly

In the wake of a new U.S. government report on human trafficking, human rights and migrant rights activists are calling on a South-east Asian regional bloc to review its polices toward this scourge to protect the group’s most vulnerable citizens – its women and children.

JAPAN: Women’s Increased Buying Power a Boost to Economy

Asako Nakano, 52, a company employee, invested in a condominium two summers ago, settling the deal with a down payment of around 155,000 U.S. dollars from her savings.

EAST EUROPE: Healthcare Ails as Doctors, Nurses Emigrate

Senior medical figures in Eastern Europe have issued stark warnings that the region's healthcare sector is both unstable and unsustainable as health workers continue to leave in droves for jobs abroad.

DEVELOPMENT: Violence Escalates Around India’s Largest Inland Lake

Basudev Dalai, 43, never thought that the fishing village where he has lived all his life and which has been home to generations of fishermen like him would be embroiled in violent clashes over the very source of their livelihood.

/CORRECTED REPEAT/THAILAND: A Year Later, Laid-off Women Still Pursuing Own Venture

They were about 1,000 when they began, but that number quickly dwindled to some 400. Now the women working at Try Arm are down to 30, yet those running the cooperative that makes women’s undergarments are determined to succeed.

Human Trafficking Still Widespread, U.S. Included

Ten years ago, the U.S. State Department issued its first annual review of governments' efforts to combat human trafficking. Monday, the report included the U.S.'s own struggles with the problem for the first time.

ARGENTINA: Over 40 and Jobless? Click Here

Tired of being sidelined in the job market because he was over 40, an Argentine computer specialist created a labour exchange for people his age and older, which in just a few months grew to nearly 6,000 people.

CHILE: Maternity Leave – Longer, or for All Working Mothers?

"In Chile, women carry the entire burden of maternity," says teacher Fabiola Quiñones, who applauds the government's proposal to extend pre- and post- natal leave to six months -- but only if all new mothers who work can have that option.

MIDEAST: Most Palestinians in Lebanon Stay Unemployed

Lebanon’s record of segregating Palestinians is not much better than that of Israel. Since their exodus here, after the establishment of Israel in 1948, Palestinians have been systemically denied equal employment and social rights.

LABOUR-URUGUAY: Women Still at a Disadvantage

In the world of labour in Uruguay there is one indicator in which women are ahead: unemployment.

CHINA: Spate of Factory Suicides Exposes Sorry Plight of Workers

Ma Xiangqian, a 19-year-old migrant from the eastern Chinese province of Henan, worked the 11-hour night shift, seven days a week, putting together electronic parts for Foxconn Technology, the world’s biggest contract maker of information technology goods.

FRANCE: Migrants’ Remittances Are a Cash Cow

Immigrants in France send some eight billion euro (9.6 billion US dollars) a year back to their countries of origin, often paying exorbitant fees - though the French government has announced moves to lower tariffs.