HEALTH: Sanitation Advocates Lead Bowl Movement

Sim Jae-Duck, a member of the South Korean national assembly, did a quick survey of the urban landscape in New York last week and expressed disappointment over a woeful shortage of public restrooms in a densely-populated city of over eight million people.

Q&A: “Abstinence Is Not the Only Way to Go”

Few aid programmes have been as controversial among activists and public health experts as the George W. Bush administration's abstinence-based HIV/AIDS treatment and prevention initiative, called the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR).

ENVIRONMENT-CUBA: Guantanamo’s Two-Faced Climate

Nature is hard to pin down in Guantánamo. The salty and eroded soils and infrequent rains in the south mark a clear contrast with the lush green of the northern coast of Cuba's eastern-most province.

ARGENTINA: The Long (Children’s) March Against Hunger

"There are lots of hungry, barefoot children in Argentina, but they don't talk about that in school, so I learn a lot when I come on these marches," said Aluminé Giuliani, a teenager participating in a nationwide children's march, which arrived in the Argentine capital Friday.

INDIA: Dalit Woman Stages a Political Revolution

The Hindi word 'Dalit' has entered the international lexicon in recent years as an evocative reminder of the unique cruelty and injustice of India's caste system.

PAKISTAN: Despite Odds Village Girls Get an Education

Shumaila is sitting for her school certificate exam this month. But that does not relieve her from daily chores that include tending to dozen or so head of cattle.

CHILE: Pressing Hard for Full Recognition of Indigenous Rights

In the next few days, President Michelle Bachelet will throw all her political weight behind the motion for Congress to finally ratify the ILO convention recognising the collective and individual rights of indigenous people.

LATIN AMERICA: For a Day Against Homophobia

"We don't want more or less rights than anyone else; we want exactly the same rights," says Mexican transsexual Sofía Valero, one of millions of Latin Americans who suffer discrimination and are at risk of gay bashings and murder because of their sexual orientation.

DEVELOPMENT: Winners and Losers in Globalisation Struggle

Globalisation, widely perceived as the growing economic interdependence of countries worldwide, is a mixed blessing to the world's three billion poverty-stricken people living on less than two dollars a day.

TRADE-KENYA: Growing Maize Is Not What It Used to Be

Ask Kenyans what their favourite food is and they will most likely answer ugali.

ENVIRONMENT-AFRICA: Getting Most of the Heat From Global Warming

Nobody will escape the effects of climate change but the poor in Africa will suffer the most because of decreasing food production and the heightened prevalence of diseases such as malaria, warn environmentalists, church leaders and researchers.

HEALTH-MOZAMBIQUE: Stopping Death With a Net

Each time she has been pregnant, 20-year-old Isaura Paulina has fallen sick with malaria. Malaria was probably the cause of her two miscarriages and the low birth weight and frailty of her baby Belinda. She only weighed two kilograms at birth and now also has malaria.

POLITICS-BENIN: A Drubbing in National Elections Turns Attention to Local Polls

Out of 250 candidates, just a handful triumphed: not an impressive track record by any measure. So, Benin's women are already looking ahead to the next election.

BRAZIL: Dorothy Stang Sentence – More Than Symbolic?

Forty percent of the 1,237 murders linked to land disputes in Brazil between 1985 and 2001 took place in the northern state of Pará. But things could begin to change there if the sentence handed down to the rancher who ordered the killing of U.S.-born nun Dorothy Stang does not end up as merely symbolic, said French priest Henri Burin des Roziers.

HEALTH-THAILAND: Holding Big Pharma’s Feet to the Fire

For nearly a week the advertising pages of Thai and English-language dailies have been the stage for debates on Thailand's decision to break patents on anti-AIDS drugs in the interest of public health.

RIGHTS-ANGOLA: Beauty Is in the Eye of the Evictor

The Angolan government forcibly evicted 20,000 poor people, including small-scale farmers, and destroyed 3,000 homes between 2002 and 2006 in the capital, Luanda, "to facilitate development and 'beautification' in the public interest".

TRADE: Malawi-South Africa Agreement ”Will Attract Investors”

The Malawian government is optimistic that its new economic and technical cooperation agreement with South Africa will finally draw investors from its mighty neighbour.

TRADE-SOUTHERN AFRICA: New Zambezi Waterway Planned

Malawi, Zambia and Mozambique hope to navigate the mighty Zambezi river's waterways by 2009 as an alternative and cheap transport route for imports and exports from and to the three southern African countries.

CHINA: Public Health Education Sorely Missing

China's government is trying to fix its ailing rural health-care system by pouring millions into medical infrastructure for the countryside, but its neglect of basic health education for the public could condemn these efforts to failure, health experts here warn.

ARGENTINA: Civil Society Wants Transparency – For Itself as Well

Non-governmental organisations have won prestige and credibility revealing injustice and corruption in business and government. But who oversees the watchdogs? Who holds them accountable for how they use their funds, how they operate, and the results achieved through their work?

HEALTH-AFRICA: 28 Stories, 28 Million Victims

"Humans are predisposed to respond to individual suffering; they are overwhelmed by huge numbers," Henry-Paul Normandin, Canada's ambassador to the United Nations, told diplomats, U.N. officials and journalists gathered at the Canadian Mission here Monday.