CHINA: And Why Not A Baby Girl

Although Li Xiaoxue and her husband, Dai Chunlin, are already happy parents to a young boy, they plan to skirt China’s one-child policy by having another baby. And like a growing number of affluent, urban Chinese, their fingers are crossed for a baby girl.

Zimbabwe Women Make Themselves Heard on Draft Constitution

A parliamentary select committee has begun compiling comments on a new constitution, gathered at 4,000 meetings held across Zimbabwe over the past three months. Gender activists are confident that women's views have been expressed; it will be up to the eventual drafters of the new constitution to ensure they are reflected.

Honduras Has Much to Explain in Human Rights Exam

Honduras must answer to the United Nations Human Rights Council this week with respect to the numerous complaints of human rights violations committed before, during and after the Jun. 28, 2009 coup d'état that overthrew President Manuel Zelaya.

BRAZIL: The Ironies of Politics

The irony of politics is that the principles upheld by a party are often contradicted in practice, in the struggle for office or the exercise of power. Brazil's elections, in which Dilma Rousseff was chosen as the country's first woman president, offer some apt illustrations.

Salvadoran Prisons – Hubs of Organised Crime

Decades of government neglect, a corruption-racked penitentiary system and a growing wave of violent crime have combined to move El Salvador's prisons even further away from their stated purpose of rehabilitation while strengthening their role as veritable schools of crime.

POLITICS: Cluster Munitions Treaty Leaves U.S. Behind

A campaign to rid the world of cluster munitions has still to rope in the U.S. government, a major producer and stockpiler of the deadly payload, on the eve of a key global conference in Laos to ban its production and use.

MIDEAST: Past Fails to Pass Barriers

A Swedish attempt to bridge conflicting historical narratives has failed to bring Israeli and Palestinian educators together in teaching the other side's views on history.

Free Trade Deals Bait Indian Fishermen

A series of bilateral free trade agreements (FTAs) is threatening the livelihoods of India's fishermen on the 8,000 km peninsular coastline - among the longest in the world - and the diets of millions of Indians for whom fish is a cheap source of protein.

U.S. Polls Bode Ill for Immigration Reform

With conservatives likely to be the biggest winners in Tuesday's U.S. congressional elections, efforts to achieve a more compassionate national immigration policy may be one of the biggest losers.

MEXICO: Altars to Victims of Violence on Day of the Dead

"It's painful to build an altar of offerings to your dead child," Abraham Fraijo, one of the leading activists in a citizens' movement against violence and impunity in Mexico, wrote in his Twitter account while taking part in a series of protests during the celebrations of the Day of the Dead.

World Forum Boosts Education for Palestinians

Education in Palestinian areas and the longing for a homeland were given a major boost over the weekend through the World Education Forum (WEF). The four-day education conference Oct. 28-31 was held in cities across the West Bank and in Gaza, as well as Lebanon.

U.N. Doubts Credibility of Upcoming Burmese Polls

The United Nations is fighting a losing battle trying to convince the repressive military junta in Burma (Myanmar) that nationwide elections scheduled for next week should be both "credible" and "inclusive".

Torture Orders Were Part of U.S. Sectarian War Strategy

The revelation by Wikileaks of a U.S. military order directing U.S. forces not to investigate cases of torture of detainees by Iraqis has been treated in news reports as yet another case of lack of concern by the U.S. military about detainee abuse.

Fighting Violence with Death in Guatemala

As the movement for the abolition of the death penalty gains ground worldwide, Guatemala is seeking to reintroduce capital punishment, which has been in legal limbo since 2000. Congress has already approved a law paving the way for the execution of 41 death row inmates.

Military Jury Tried to “Send a Message” in Khadr Case

A military jury at Guantanamo Bay sentenced a "child soldier" to 40 years in prison – unaware that Omar Khadr's defence and prosecution lawyers had already agreed on an eight-year sentence and further agreed that the United States would send the Canadian home next year.

An Awakening in Nagoya

The international community has finally awoken to the other great trans-boundary challenge of our time, with a new international agreement to halt the unravelling of the web of life that sustains humanity.

BRAZIL: Women Still a Small Minority in Congress, But Top Job Is Now Theirs

Although women are a majority of the population, the electorate, and doctoral students in Brazil, have more years of schooling on average than men, and hold almost half of all formal sector jobs, they remain a tiny minority in positions of political power. But South America's giant will now have its first woman president, Dilma Rousseff.

U.S.: Immigration Policing Opt-Out Called into Question

Will U.S. local law enforcement be forced to participate in a programme that critics say will put city police in the position of enforcing federal immigration law and, in the process, divert scarce resources from essential community policing, discourage immigrants from working with police to solve crimes and increase racial profiling?

EUROPE: Drones may Track Migrants

The notice appeared quietly on the website of Frontex, Europe's agency to fight undocumented migration. It called for expressions of interest in demonstrating "Small UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles) and Fixed systems for Land border surveillance" at its workshop.

INDIA: Political Stalemate Defines Life in Kashmir

All Shabnam Khan wants is a one-day break in the ongoing strike, so that her daughter can try her luck and get admission in a topnotch school here in the capital of Indian- administered Kashmir.

MIDEAST: The People Speak

The focus on people's movements in Palestine continues to gain momentum with growing non-violent demonstrations in Gaza, the occupied West Bank and occupied East Jerusalem, and with a Palestine-wide call for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel.