IRAQ: Between the Two Rivers, Lack of Water Kills

The collapse of Iraq's infrastructure has created a worsening water crisis that is killing untold numbers of Iraqis.

COLOMBIA: Thousands of Poor Line Up All Night for Gov’t Aid

Spending the cold Bogotá night outside on a sidewalk is not recommended. But thousands of poor Colombians, including many displaced by the civil war, had no choice this week if they wanted to register for the meagre assistance offered by the government’s Families in Action programme before the deadline expired.

MIDEAST: Settlers Anchoring In

Israeli forces began Wednesday to bulldoze hundreds of trees on land owned by a Catholic convent near the city of Beit Jala near Bethlehem. This section of forest is being razed, according to Israeli plans, to complete a section of the separation wall, which continues to carve the West Bank into pieces.

DEVELOPMENT: 2.6 Billion Wait in Line for Toilets

There are more than 2.6 billion people, roughly 42 percent of the world's population, waiting in line for toilets that just do not exist.

DEVELOPMENT: Water as a Right and Key to Social Stability

A top United Nations official has learned through personal experience what it is like to live without safe drinking water during her visits home to the Tanzanian capital.

RIGHTS-MEXICO: Truth Commission or Justice Commission?

Human rights groups in Mexico are making another effort to get a truth commission established to investigate the "dirty war," the name given to the illegal strongarm measures used against guerrillas and opponents of successive Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) governments in the 1960s and 1970s.

HUMAN RIGHTS-MEXICO: Crime Sans Punishment

The Mexican Supreme Court of Justice has decided that in cases of human rights violations, it will limit its action to conducting an inquiry, and will abstain from recommending sentences. Two state governors and several police chiefs will undoubtedly breathe easier after the announcement.

BRAZIL: Schools as Tools to Combat Violence

The assault on a physical education teacher was the last straw. Three teenagers beat him with sticks, causing a head injury which required 17 stitches. The school closed for three weeks from that day, Apr. 30, 2003.

MUSIC-CUBA: Rap Calls for ‘Revolution Within the Revolution’

In makeshift studios, Cuba’s hip hop movement keeps on recording music that goes to the heart of the country’s troubles, in spite of the indifference of record companies and the media, and the negative response of society, which is perhaps afraid of hearing its defects exposed in song lyrics.

PAKISTAN: Looking to Women to Preserve the Peace

''The idea is to ensure that a May 12 never happens again,'' said Nasir Aslam Zahid, former judge and one of the members of the Women’s Commission for Peace (WCP) formed in time for Tuesday when Pakistan celebrates its 60th year of independence.

RIGHTS-MEXICO: 16,000 Victims of Child Sexual Exploitation

The child pornography and commercial sexual exploitation industry enjoys total impunity in the Mexican capital, according to a report by the Mexico City Human Rights Commission.

PERU: Pollution Emergency Plan Instead of Real Action for La Oroya

Far from halting the source that is poisoning the Andean city of La Oroya, which is home to the Doe Run smelting complex, the Peruvian government ordered a contingency plan for the days when air pollution is worst, as if it were dealing with a natural disaster.

ENVIRONMENT-INDONESIA: Riding Water Taxis to Clean Rivers

On weekends, groups of children and their parents crowd around South Jakarta’s Halimun Pier waiting to take a joy ride on one of two water taxis, recently introduced by the administration.

ENVIRONMENT-MALAYSIA: Water a Sacred Gift Affirm Interfaith Leaders

When religious leaders from different faiths sought to jointly affirm the sacredness of water as the source of life but were shooed away by authorities, it was seen as a move to scuttle interfaith harmony as well as support plans to privatise a common resource.

DISARMAMENT: Chemical Weapons – One-Third Down, Two-Thirds To Go

The director general of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), Rogelio Pfirter, urged the United Nations Conference on Disarmament Tuesday to recover the dynamism that led to the adoption of the convention against these weapons.

CULTURE-THAILAND: Elvises Live – 15,000 Miles From Graceland

Strobe lights beam into the distance as groovy beats and wild sounds permeate the atmosphere. With the boisterous crowd turning ballistic, it is hard to ignore this ongoing celebration. A typical screenshot of the Thai capital’s exuberant nightlife? No, not quite.

CHINA: Rehearsing the Coming Out Party Called Olympics

When the capital of the Middle Kingdom hosts the summer Olympics next year, nothing will be left to chance or spontaneity. Image-conscious and averse to PR gaffes, Chinese leaders are staging a grand rehearsal to fine-tune a coming out party into the world.

ENERGY-SOUTH AMERICA: Mega Gas Pipeline Plans Held Up

The South American mega-pipeline project to transport natural gas from the Caribbean to the River Plate, supplying a large part of Brazil en route, "has cooled down because of attacks from within South America itself" and due to attempts by the United States to delay the plans, complained Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez.

BRAZIL: ‘I’m the Only Gang Member Alive and Free’

Most of them were 15 or 16 years old when they created the gang "Falta de Deus" (Lack of God), a name chosen because "we were all against Christ." Of the 25 members, 10 are dead and 14 are in jail. "I'm the only one still alive and free," says 22-year-old Elias da Silva.

ENVIRONMENT-MEXICO: So Far from God, So Close to…Venice?

Mexico City, one of the most populous cities in the world, could become the Venice of Latin America, although without the "gondolieri" to serenade tourists as they row them along.

CHILE: Arica Residents Tired of ‘Undrinkable’ Tapwater

Residents of the city of Arica, in northern Chile, are demanding regulations to limit the amount of boron in their drinking water, while the authorities are waiting for the results of a study to determine whether it has a harmful effect on human health.