HEALTH-ASIA: Unheard Voices Resonate at AIDS Photo Show

Sabina Yeasmin Putul has a silent, determined look with her left fist clenched tight in front of her face - a vision of strength, grace, and resilience all in one.

HEALTH-ASIA: &#39Tackling HIV/AIDS Goes Beyond Morality&#39

On the second day of the three-day Interfaith Community Forum ahead of the 8th International Congress for AIDS in the Asia-Pacific (ICAAP) here, different religious groups gathered together to share their experiences dealing with HIV and AIDS - once a controversial, taboo issue for many of them.

POLITICS-MALI: Worst Expectations Confounded

As former British Prime Minister Harold Wilson once remarked, "A week is a long time in politics." By this token, a political landscape can alter even more in a month, recent developments in Mali being a case in point.

HEALTH-PAKISTAN: Drug Addicts Routinely Denied Anti-HIV Medicines

''I’ve been running temperature for the past 25 days and lost about five kg in the last one month... just feel so weak every day,'' says Mohammad Sohail, 28, who tested HIV positive a little more than a year ago. His CD4 count is 152.

CORRUPTION-HONDURAS: International Aid Hanging by a Thread

The Honduran government of Manuel Zelaya has not been able to overcome the country’s reputation for corruption, to the extent that it is on the point of losing millions of dollars in aid from the Millennium Challenge Account, a fund set up by the United States to help extremely poor countries.

ENERGY: Biofuel Seen as Boost for Poor Farmers

The world's rural poor could benefit from a boom in fuel wrung from crops, despite worries that an accompanying surge in food prices could result in more hunger, say environmental and food experts.

DEVELOPMENT: Singapore and Iraq – Contrasts in Water Management

As the world faces new threats of water scarcity, triggered by phenomena like global warming and bioenergy demands, Singapore and Iraq have been singled out as two political extremes in water management.

NICARAGUA: A Green Crusade for Water

The Nicaraguan government launched a national campaign to reforest 60,000 hectares per year as part of an effort to recover 18 rivers lost as a result of uncontrolled logging.

RIGHTS-THAILAND: Restrictions Make Life Tough For Migrant Workers

Migrant workers do not have an easy time in Thailand, but those from the neighbouring countries of Burma, Cambodia and Laos have been facing an especially tough life following the imposition of a harsh decree on them that severely restricts their movements and rights.

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.

BRAZIL: Turning Women’s Rights Into Reality

Women’s right to abortion, and the effective implementation of social policies, especially those directly concerning women, will be key issues at the Second National Conference on Policies for Women, to be held in Brasilia from Friday to Monday.

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.

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.

CHILE: Equal Opportunity Employers’ Seal of (E)quality

"Chile - Growing in Equality" is the name of the campaign launched by the government of Michelle Bachelet to advertise its programme "Iguala.cl", aimed at certifying state and private companies that comply with gender equity standards for their employees.

MALAWI: Informal Trade Crucial For Job Creation

Every day a bus, usually packed to capacity, leaves Malawi for South Africa. Most of the passengers are traders, off to sell wooden curios in the main South African cities of Johannesburg, Durban and Cape Town.

ZIMBABWE: Traders Are Now Importing Basic Foodstuffs

Sithabile Khuzwayo is one of many women who bring groceries and clothing from across the borders of neighbouring Botswana and South Africa to sell at the flourishing flea markets of Zimbabwe’s second largest city, Bulawayo.

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.

BURUNDI: Population Growth and Poor Farming Methods Weigh on the Land

In Busoni, northern Burundi, the Mbarushimana clan is receiving a hard lesson in the limits of natural resources. Three sons, and other relatives, are trying to survive on land inherited from their father, amidst doubts that the small property is up to the task of supporting them.

HEALTH: World Faces New Threats of Water Scarcity

The world is on the verge of "a new and more serious era of water scarcity" than ever before, is the ominous warning coming out of an international water conference here.

Q&A: A Hope "To Link the Efforts of all the Actors" in Fighting Desertification

Desertification poses a severe threat in the West African state of Mauritania, and Mohamed Yahya Lafdal is on the front lines of fighting the scourge.

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.