LABOUR: Africans Shun the Ocean Wave

At this bustling port, where massive cranes above cargo ships load and unload goods in perpetual motion, a strange division of labour is apparent.

MEDIA-ASIA: Proofreaders Going Extinct in Newsrooms

They were usually the first to arrive at work and the last to leave, and often took the blame for boo-boos in the following day's issue of the newspaper. Now the newsroom's unsung heroes, who engage in a daily deadline battle armed only with their sharp eye for detail and those squiggly proofreading marks, are facing a new kind of threat — extinction.

ASIA: Financial Crisis Stalls Region’s Poverty Reduction Targets

For the past decade, it was demand for Asian exports from the developed world that helped this region march ahead towards meeting internationally set development targets – such as slashing the numbers living in poverty.

URUGUAY: A Chance to Leave Poverty Behind

Nilda Barboza gets up at 3:00 AM every day to make it on time to her new job in an upscale neighbourhood in the Uruguayan capital from her home in an outlying area. But she does so with a sense of pride, for being one of tens of thousands of people who is no longer among the ranks of the poor, thanks to a government anti-poverty programme.

BURMA: ILO Turns Spotlight on Officials to End Forced Labour

The International Labour Organisation (ILO) is turning its attention to a western corner of military-ruled Burma to end the scourge of forced labour, which remains rampant in most parts of the South-east Asian nation.

MIGRATION-ITALY: A Helping Hand in a Hostile Land

Italy is in many ways a country of contradictions, known for its beautiful beaches and vulnerable coasts, its staunch Catholicism and growing intolerance towards immigrants.

ECONOMY-US: Still as Good as Ever to Be the Boss

Only 12 months after the meltdown of the U.S. financial system and the ensuing taxpayer-sponsored government bailout, the pay of the nation's top Wall Street chief executive officers (CEOs) is beginning to bounce back to pre-crisis levels, according to a new study on executive compensation released Wednesday.

Q&A: Economic Empowerment Gives Women Choices

In Egypt, women have not achieved the same career levels as their male counterparts. Women are chiefly employed as civil servants, in small family businesses or as manual labour in the agricultural sector.

CUBA: Will Legalising Multiple Jobs Bring Real Change for Women?

With a good job as a professional in Cuba’s public sector, Mariela Sánchez takes advantage of the flexible hours to take on another, part-time job and collaborate with a specialised publication.

PAKISTAN: Female Journalist Pursues Sexual Harassment Case

When is a telephone call considered sexual harassment?

BALKANS: Strike Wave Sweeps Serbia

A very hot summer of workers' discontent has taken over Serbia. Some 33,000 people go on strike daily in 40 to 45 firms, according to union statistics. They are mostly employees of privatised companies who have not been paid salaries or social and health security benefits for months now.

LABOUR-THAILAND: Economic Crisis Hits Burmese Migrant Women

The global financial crisis is threatening to shred the dreams of thousands of women from Burma, who have fled their military-ruled country over the past decade for better jobs in more prosperous Thailand, say activists.

Q&A: A Second Chance – As Advocate for Women Migrants in Argentina

In her 48 years, Natividad Obeso has already lived several different lives. There was the time when she lived in her native Peru as a successful businesswoman and mother of four. Then there was the time when she spent her days wandering the streets of the Argentine capital, penniless and alone, a fugitive of political persecution that she never understood.

NEPAL: Women Use Porous Border Route With India to Gulf

On Jul. 11, 15 women between the ages of 22 and 28 landed by a Gulf Airlines flight at Nepal's Tribhuvan International Airport.

HEALTH-ZIMBABWE: No Treatment for Sick as State Doctors Strike

Before, Zimbabwean families would take their ill relatives to rural clinics where medication was readily available and payment plans lenient. But now they are taking them there to die.

MIGRATION-PORTUGAL: Pitfalls in the Path to Paradise

Some 200 million people, three percent of the world's population, have left their country of origin to pursue happiness elsewhere, according to the International Organisation for Migration. But their dreams are often shattered by human trafficking rings and unscrupulous employers.

AGRICULTURE-INDIA: Ropeway a Boon to Hill Farmers

Agriculture and allied activities are the main source of livelihood of the people of the hilly state of Uttarakhand, located in the northwestern part of India and one of the country’s most enchanting regions. But difficult terrain and lack of road connectivity is a major problem for most farmers to transport their local produce to the market.

HAITI: Export Workers Await Overdue Wage Increase

Following the recommendation of President Rene Preval, the lower house of the Haitian Parliament voted Tuesday to raise the minimum wage in the assembly sector from 1.29 dollars (70 gourde) to only 3.20 dollars (125 gourde) per day, rather than the 5.12 dollars (200 gourde) which had been demanded and passed.

EGYPT: Union Eyes the Silver Bullet

Property tax collectors from across Egypt gathered last week in Cairo to protest fresh attempts by the official state trade union to undermine their independent syndicate.

RIGHTS-PARAGUAY: NGO Offers Girls a Way Out of Sexual Exploitation

Claudia was 13 years old when she came to the capital of Paraguay from her small rural town. Just a few weeks after her arrival she was wandering the streets of downtown Asunción, a victim of sexual exploitation.

AFGHANISTAN-US: Military Translators Risk Low Pay, Death

Murtaza "Jimmy" Farukhi was killed while on patrol with the U.S. Marine Corps on Sep. 9, 2008, at the age of 23. He was not a soldier, but a local translator employed by Columbus, Ohio-based Mission Essential Personnel (MEP).