PHILIPPINES: Death Penalty Dashes Migrant Workers’ Hopes

Every day some 4,500 Filipinos leave their homeland in search of the proverbial green pastures. But some of them end up facing death instead.

BIODIVERSITY: Odds Stacked Against San Harvesters of Devil’s Claw

Nguni Diyasen gently loosens the earth with a hoe and then widens the hole with her bare hands. Fifty centimetres down she uncovers the light brown root of a devil's claw. Used to treat arthritis and rheumatism, the plant also constitutes her only income.

PARAGUAY: Football – Dream for Kids, Moneyspinner for Adults

From passion for football, to football as a profession: many parents in Paraguay are hoping this sport will provide a career for their sons, who flood into football schools with the burden of their dreams -- and their parents' demands -- to become sports idols.

Greater Support Needed For Botswana’s Women Farmers

On the outskirts of Botswana’s capital, Gaborone, Charity Molefhi is learning the ropes of the horticulture industry.

BOLIVIA: Morales Faces First Workers Protests

Strikes and demonstrations against the Bolivian government's wage policy have marked the end of a honeymoon period between workers and leftwing President Evo Morales.

PAKISTAN: New Wage Hike a Mere Palliative, Say Labour Advocates

Imran Ali, 23, has no reason to complain. His monthly take home pay of 8,600 Pakistan rupees (about 102 U.S. dollars) as a government employee allows him to augment his family’s meagre income.

The Bittersweet Dreams of Uruguay’s Beekeepers

Beekeepers in the small South American country of Uruguay are facing climate change and a complex web of problems that threaten their livelihoods.

RIGHTS: Gov’t Apathy to Indians on Death Row in UAE Assailed

Despite the Indian government’s pledge to extend assistance, legal or otherwise, to the 17 Indian migrant workers currently on death row in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), human rights advocates have decried its alleged insensitivity to the prisoners’ plight.

Corruption Muddies Egypt’s Labour Pool

Saeed El-Masry was born poor, raised poor and, unless he can get ‘kosa,’ will probably die poor. Kosa is the Arabic word for zucchini, but it also means someone in a position of power who can open doors to gainful employment.

Like Unemployed Mum and Dad

A generation of children growing up in Eastern Europe face poverty when they reach working age because of the effect their own parents' long-term unemployment will have on them, sociologists and economists have warned.

CHINA: E-waste Processing Poisons Health, Environment

Like many who have profited from the electronic waste trade in this southern Chinese town, hospital administrator Lin Banghong does not live there. "I've worked here 10 years and haven't gotten sick," he said.

RIGHTS: Iceland Wakes Up to Trafficking for Sex Work

It took the conviction of five Lithuanian men in March, on charges of bringing a 19-year-old girl into Iceland for sex work, before this country truly woke up to the reality of trafficking.

BURMA: Two Years after Nargis, Life Is Far from Normal

Kyaw Moe is just in his 30s, but he is already on his second shot at life – just like the rest of the residents of Thakan Ngu, a tiny Burmese village in this township of Bogalay.

DEVELOPMENT-SRI LANKA: Garment Woes Dampen Labour Day

Though the global economic crisis has eased in most of Asia, latest reports about falling demand for garments in markets like Europe and the United States have become a new source of concern to Sri Lanka’s troubled garment labour force.

SRI LANKA: Farming, Fisheries Offer Hope to Former Battleground

Well before the northern Sri Lankan region of the Jaffna Peninsula was devastated by over two and a half decades of a bloody sectarian war, fisheries and agriculture had been the mainstays of its economy.

U.S.: Protests Mount Against Immigrant Crackdown

Three civil rights organisations are suing the U.S. government to obtain records related to a little-known programme known as "Secure Communities" that further involves local and state police in federal immigration enforcement.

VENEZUELA: Mixed Results for Gender Policies

After years of paltry wages as a piecework seamstress, Elisa Manrique finally has the chance to leave the informal sector and poverty behind. Thanks to a small business loan from the Venezuelan government, she and a group of other women - including some of her daughters and a daughter-in-law - have been able to set up their own sewing cooperative.

New Face of U.S. Foreclosures – The Unemployed

Giselle Jiles could be the new face of foreclosure. The 52-year-old financial planner has owned her home in Oakland's Laurel District for 12 years. She did not buy an expensive home that was beyond her means and she did not sign up for a predatory adjustable rate mortgage that was reset at an unsustainably expensive rate.

Farm Workers Fight for an Extra Cent

Chanting "No more slaves! Pay a living wage!", hundreds of farmworkers, students and others marched 22 miles through central Florida for three days, calling on the Publix supermarket chain to pay an extra penny to the impoverished workers who pick their tomatoes.

COSTA RICA: (In)human Trafficking

The rescue in a Costa Rican port of 36 Asians working as slaves in appalling conditions on two fishing boats once again highlighted the need to fight people trafficking in this Central American country.

SOUTH AFRICA: Racist’s Death Highlights Rural Tension

Eugene Terre'Blanche, killed on his farm on Easter weekend, is catalysing racial tension in South Africa in death much as he did in his life.