NICARAGUA: A Month of Free Fun and Games for Poor Children

More than one million poor children in Nicaragua will enjoy a massive Christmas celebration this month, complete with recreational activities and presents, organised by the government of President Daniel Ortega. But the opposition is criticising the project as populist and eccentric.

EGYPT: New Money Boosts Puppy Mill Industry

A few years ago, dog markets were dull places with pooch purveyors keeping an eye open for more lucrative business.

CULTURE-IBEROAMERICA: Women MisPrized

"The judges are usually men, and they tend to prefer men's writing," Mexican journalist and novelist Elena Poniatowska, a perennial candidate for the Miguel de Cervantes Prize, said with a note of resignation in her voice.

CHILE: Media Empires Undermine Pluralistic Democracy

Chile is a classic example of the concentration of media ownership in too few hands, says Chilean journalist María Olivia Mönckeberg in her latest book "Los magnates de la prensa" (The Press Magnates). If the state does not exercise stricter regulation, democracy itself may be undermined, she warns.

MIDEAST: Settlers Aim a Kick at Football

Without an efficient bureaucracy, occupation of the land of another people cannot be sustained. This is all the more true of Israel's 42-year occupation of Palestinian lands.

PHILIPPINES: Will Blood-soaked Election Change Maguindanao? – Part 2

"Young and old, whether you’re against them (the Ampatuans) or not, were (forcibly) taken from their homes and brought to a place somewhere in Maguindanao, where they were tortured and later killed," recounted a resident of Cotabato City—a major city bordering Maguindanao in southern Philippines— who declined to be named out of fear for his life.

PHILIPPINES: Maguindanao Massacre Has Some Familiar Roots – Part 1

In an instant the Philippines emerged as the world’s most dangerous place for journalists, effectively displacing Iraq, which, until the massacre in an impoverished town in southern Philippines, held that dubious distinction.

PAKISTAN: Faithful Celebrate Eid Amid Fear, Use Online Services

For Waqas Ahmed, 9, the sight of half a dozen gun-totting policemen—perched on the rooftop of the mosque in his neighbourhood—was very disturbing, to say the least. He had been used to seeing a security guard frisking the faithful during Friday prayers. But what he saw this time on his way to the mosque to say his Eid ul Azha prayers was extraordinary.

JAPAN: Aging Population Needs More than Short-Term Solutions

Sachiko Yamada has been hoping to spend her retirement years traveling and living the good life. Today she devotes her time to taking care of her 90-year- old mother five days a week, leaving her with two days off while her mother goes to a care centre for the elderly.

WORLD AIDS DAY: Herdboys at Risk to Contract HIV

In the scorching heat of the midday summer sun, a teenage boy’s sharp voice can be heard vividly as he continuously summons his cattle. Glad in his shabby-looking rag that used to be a blanket and black gumboots, the only thing that occupies his mind is his herd, his everyday companions, nothing else.

INDIA: Towards an AIDS-Free Society, But at What Price?

As the global community observes World AIDS Day today, India is caught in a rancorous debate about a government scheme which mandates that all pregnant women in the country be tested for HIV so that its 1.2 billion people can have "an AIDS-free generation".

MEDIA-LATIN AMERICA: Women Deserve Better Press

"The press will change when they cease to report exclusively from a masculine point of view," Peru's deputy Minister for Women, Norma Añaños, told participants at an international seminar for journalists on "Women at Work, Women as Leaders", held in the Peruvian capital.

ASIA: Artists Join Forces to Make a Difference in Mekong

Nouv Srey Leab, 24, could not quite contain her excitement about the chance to participate in the just concluded regional arts and media festival held in this capital, believing it was one welcome occasion meet fellow artists from other countries in the Mekong sub-region.

ROMANIA: Business Crowds Out Bucharest Life

Competing with the destruction caused by former Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu’s ‘systematisation’ plans might be hard. But an official report says that "the aggression on Bucharest’s architectural heritage, documented since 1989, exceeds Ceausescu’s acts.’’

MEDIA: The Untold Stories of Violence Against Women

"You don’t need to go far, it is all around us," said Robert Dijksterhuis, head of the gender division in the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, to a room mostly full of women. "Up to one in three women around the world has been abused in some way - most often by someone she knows," he added, quoting UNFPA (United Nations Population Fund) numbers.

BRAZIL: ‘Quilombos’ Keep Black Cultural Identity Alive

A black community in the southern Brazilian state of Rio de Janeiro is trying to maintain its cultural heritage on 287 hectares granted to it by the government in 1999 as part of reparations to the descendants of slaves.

RIGHTS-FRANCE: Domestic Violence – Everybody’s Business

Several people are gathered outside a window, staring wide-eyed at a scene within. They watch as a man brutally beats a woman, pounding her face with his fists, kicking her. No one says anything, until an onlooker screams agonisingly: "stop".

LITERATURE/WOMEN: “When a Woman Wins, It is Still a Story”

The Nobel Prize in Literature has been awarded 102 times to 106 Nobel laureates between 1901 and 2009. Only 10 of those winners were women. Meanwhile, the Man Booker Prize has been awarded to 15 women in 40 years.

INDIA: Women As Hindu Priests Have An Edge

Defying Hindu orthodoxy and intolerant male priests, women in Maharashtra state, western India, have revived a Vedic tradition and become priests.

Q&A: Maternal Mortality Rates ‘One of the Saddest Cases’ in Asia

Nearly 15 years after a landmark international conference to advance the rights and freedoms of women, the picture in the Asia-Pacific region is mixed, says a leading women’s rights advocate and senior United Nations official.

RIGHTS: Tick the Right Box If You Feel French

The stereotypical image of a French person is of someone wearing a beret and carrying a baguette under his arm. But can one wear a burqa and also be French? Can one prefer pitta bread to baguettes and still be French?