RIGHTS-CAMEROON: Finally, a Law Against Female Genital Mutilation?

Recently, Cameroon's female legislators could be found under a tree in the garden of the country's parliament, listening to Hannah Kwenti: 17, the mother of a five-month-old baby girl - and a victim of female genital mutilation (FGM).

AFRICA: Across the Continent, Gays Face Jail Terms, Discrimination

"We are here in Africa: we live in the mainstream, we pay taxes like everybody else in the mainstream, we relate with people in the mainstream. We are a naturally-occurring phenomenon in the universe," said activist Donna Smith of gay persons in Africa.

RIGHTS-CAMEROON: An Unwelcome “Gift of God”

Josiane Matia, making her way along a school route in the Cameroonian capital of Yaoundé, is far less carefree than other 11-year-olds. Walking slowly, she complains of the pain caused by a breast band that her mother has forced her to wear for three months.

HEALTH-BOLIVIA: Childbirth Still a Gamble, Despite Care Efforts

While the birth of a child generally represents joy and life, in Bolivia, new motherhood is all too often plagued with fear, uncertainty and even death of mothers and newborns, report organisations dedicated to maternal and child health.

ARGENTINA: Sold into Prostitution as Children, Accused in Court as Adults

A trial opened Tuesday in Argentina against a former federal police officer charged with running a brothel and three women who were supposedly his accomplices.

WOMEN-PERU: The Enemy at Home

The plot of the film "Sleeping with the Enemy" is not fictional in essence. Close to 70 percent of all the women killed in one year in Peru died at the hands of their husbands, partners, lovers or boyfriends, and the murders were committed at home or in a place that was frequented by the couple.

PAKISTAN: Nurses Get Little Training or Respect

Pakistan's health care system is hamstrung by an acute shortage of nursing professionals - the result of poor training facilities and an extremely difficult work environment.

HEALTH-CUBA: Abortion Competes With Contraceptives

Many women in Cuba resort to abortion, 40 years after it was decriminalised, as though it were just another contraceptive method. Some even prefer it to condoms, the pill or intrauterine devices (IUDs), without giving a thought to the risks involved or the ethical aspects.

HEALTH-KENYA: Changing Tradition Through Talk

It is a part of Kenya where prevalence rates for female genital mutilation (FGM) are at their highest, and communities deeply resistant to cultural change. However, Kajiado district is also an area where simple conversations hold out the promise of helping to end FGM.

HEALTH-SOUTH AFRICA: A Burden That Will Only Become Heavier

Researchers say they are bracing for a sharp rise in the cost of public health services in South Africa within the next few years, due to HIV/AIDS. And, they warn that the country's health department might not be able to cope with its ever-growing responsibilities if government fails to increase the department's budget substantially.

PAKISTAN: Village Organisations Empower

To passersby, the village of Fazal Talhani, 250 km east of this port city, looks starkly different from neighbouring ones. It has clean homes, safe drinking water, well maintained streets and, most importantly, happy and healthy school-going children.

BOLIVIA: Wanted – Healthcare Adapted To Indigenous Cultures

The alarming state of health in Bolivia is related to the dominant healthcare model, which ignores the society's traditional cultures, said Health Minister Nila Heredia, who is attending the World Health Assembly in this Swiss city.

ARGENTINA: Women Air Society’s Dirty Laundry in Art Exhibit

A group of female prostitutes in Buenos Aires is using art to lay bare their situation - that is, the state and societal abuse they endure - to the public.

AFRICA: Cautious Optimism Surfaces

Africa has come to be associated with conflicts, political unrest, famine and disease. A new report says that there is reason to be optimistic about the world's second largest continent.

HEALTH-KENYA: Preventing Rape Survivors From Becoming AIDS Statistics

For women who are victims of rape, recovery from the violation is typically arduous and draining. When they're unable to get treatment to prevent possible HIV infection the process is even more fraught, however - something Kenya is grappling with.

RELIGION: Legionaries of Christ Founder Falls from Grace

It took the Catholic Church more than half a century to acknowledge the numerous allegations of sexual abuse against the leader of a conservative order founded in Mexico, the Legionaries of Christ. But the Vatican, which has frequently praised Father Marcial Maciel over the years, finally decided to punish him.

CHILE: Law on Civil Union for Gays Within Reach

Chile may soon have a law to regulate the inheritance rights of both homosexual and unmarried heterosexual couples, according to activists and lawyers who are working on a draft version of the law.

CUBA: Soap Opera Spotlights Sexual Diversity

"La cara oculta de la luna" (The Dark Side of the Moon) - the latest soap opera to be beamed into thousands of Cuban homes - will forever be remembered as triggering unprecedented social debate on sexual diversity and homophobia in the country.

UGANDA: Abstinence Clashes With Reality When Women Are Powerless

Tens of thousands of Ugandan schoolchildren have enrolled in 'True Love Waits' clubs that promote sexual abstinence as the way to stop the spread of HIV/AIDS.

COLOMBIA: Magistrates Excommunicated for Partially Lifting Abortion Ban

Twenty-seven years after Congresswoman Consuelo Lleras unsuccessfully submitted a bill to legalise abortion in Colombia, the country’s Constitutional Court has recognised the right to terminate a pregnancy in case of rape, a threat to the woman’s life or health, or if the foetus has a deformity that would prevent survival outside the womb.

HEALTH-SOUTH AFRICA: The Mystery of Discordance

Silas Masindi* was not entirely surprised by his HIV test results. The dapper garment trader, who discovered earlier this year that he was infected with the AIDS virus, admits to using condoms somewhat erratically before he remarried three years ago.