CENTRAL AMERICA: Gangs Flourish as &#39Zero Tolerance&#39 Measures Fail

Around 40 percent of the members of youth gangs in El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras are women, according to a new study that says governments have failed in their struggle against these groups that are employed as "labour power" by drug traffickers and organised crime.

EUROPE: Forgetting Rights, Looking at Opportunities in Central Asia

With the attention of the world's media rarely turned towards Central Asia, it is easy to forget about the Andijan massacre of May 2005. Several hundred demonstrators died when Uzbek government forces opened fire on a demonstration, in what is believed to be the worst mass killing since the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre in China.

CAMEROON: Shelter, Medical Attention for Chadian Refugees

The situation of thousands of Chadian refugees who have fled to the north Cameroonian town of Kousseri continues to be a source of concern to aid workers, although the picture is not uniformly dismal.

Q&A: World&#39s Children Have Progressed and Regressed

Most of the world's 2.2 billion children are languishing in extreme poverty, ignorance and exploitation, according to Reverend Keishi Miyamoto, who is described as the guiding spirit behind the Tokyo-based Global Network of Religions for Children (GNRC).

CUBA: State-of-the-Art Centre Minimises Trauma of Sexual Abuse

The young boy speaks in barely audible tones and hardly looks up from the stuffed animal that he turns over and over in his hands. The counsellor helps him, repeating his words, prompting him to continue, but without ever asking "what happened?" or "how did you feel?" Despite the boy’s visible anxiety, the story slowly emerges.

DEVELOPMENT-KENYA: Giving Ethnic Divisions the Boot

Anthony Njoroge passes the ball to David Onyango, whose shot makes it past the goalkeeper to a thunderous cheer from spectators at Huruma Stadium, in Nairobi's Eastlands slum area.

Q&A: "Vitamin A and Zinc Should Be an Essential Part of Malaria Control Strategies"

Malaria continues to cut a swathe through Africa, which accounts for most cases of the disease and the majority of malaria-related deaths. Globally, more than a million people die from malaria each year. In the case of children, this translates into a death every 30 seconds, according to the World Health Organisation.

ARTS: Child Soldiers In Focus

The bruising treatment of youngsters in many parts of the world, and the use of child soldiers in war-torn parts of Africa has emerged as a recurring theme at the 10-day Berlin International Film Festival, which ends here Sunday.

RIGHTS: Hiroshima Forum to Focus on Children Under Siege

The world's 2.2 billion children are under siege - battling poverty, hunger, military conscription, sexual abuse, labour exploitation and HIV/AIDS, according to the United Nations.

POLITICS: U.N. Grapples With Suicide Attacks by Children

The United Nations is expressing "serious concern" over the growing number of suicide attacks involving children, specifically in Afghanistan and Iraq.

EDUCATION-ZIMBABWE: Getting Harder To Keep Children In School

Alois Mufundisi, a media professional, earns 200 million Zimbabwean dollars, about 50 U.S. dollars on the thriving parallel market.

HEALTH: Loss of 9.7 Million Children Unacceptable, Says UNICEF

The sharp decline in deaths among infants and children worldwide during the past century is "one of the great success stories in international public health", the U.N. children's agency UNICEF said Tuesday.

RIGHTS: &#39A Fifth of European Children in Poverty&#39

Nearly one-fifth of children in the European Union are living in poverty, a new report has concluded.

RIGHTS-RWANDA: Children of the Genocide Struggle to Cope

What Gilbert Nshimyumukiza remembers most about the Rwandan genocide is that it started to rain as he and his brothers tried to carry his mortally wounded father back into their house.

EDUCATION-SWAZILAND: Urban Youth Slipping Through The Cracks

As the new school year begins here many destitute or orphaned children are in need of assistance to pay for their educations. An unknown number of urban youngsters, however, are slipping through the social welfare net.

UZBEKISTAN: Call to Boycott Slave Children Cotton

A group of civil society activists has called for immediate boycott of Uzbek cotton produced by forced child labour.

ARGENTINA: Mixed Marks for Educational System

Successive economic and social crises in Argentina have left their mark on the public education system, which since the late 19th century has been a key factor of social integration and mobility in this South American country.

EDUCATION-US: Seminole School Thriving In Florida

Elementary school children in U.S. public schools are preparing for their winter holiday vacations, but at a charter school here on the Seminole Indian Tribe of Florida’s Brighton Reservation, the children are enjoying their education so much that some of them want to keep on attending classes throughout the holidays.

RIGHTS-US: Congress Takes Action on Cluster Bombs, Child Soldiers

Human-rights and humanitarian groups are hailing provisions of a major appropriations bill approved by Congress this week that bans the export of most U.S.-made cluster bombs and U.S. military aid for foreign governments that use child soldiers.

RIGHTS-PHILIPPINES: UN Study Gives Voice to Children in the Ranks

For decades the Philippines has been embroiled in armed strife with communist and Islamist rebel groups resulting in the deaths and displacement of thousands. But the worst victims of these conflicts have been children, says a new United Nations sponsored study.

GUATEMALA: New Law to End Adoption Business

The Guatemalan Congress approved a new law Tuesday that will regulate adoptions in the framework of the Hague Convention, which goes into force in this Central American country on Dec. 31.