HEALTH: A Wind of Hope in Kenya’s Desert

Madonna's 1980s hit song 'Like a Virgin' blasts incongruously from a giant silver speaker in the corner of a bar deep inside Isiolo - a dusty town on the edge of Kenya's northern Kaisut desert, filled with tough nomads and their herds of emaciated animals.

VENEZUELA: Sexually Exploited Teens Find a Way Off the Street

Teenage girls who are sexually exploited not far from the health and labour ministries, courthouse and Congress in the Venezuelan capital have found assistance in a shelter financed with international aid.

ARGENTINA: The Right to Give Birth Naturally

An original media campaign in Argentina is aimed at raising women's awareness on their right to be accompanied in the delivery room, and to give birth in whatever position is most comfortable for them and without unnecessary medical interventions.

ARGENTINA: Promising Signs in Ongoing Struggle for Safe, Legal Abortion

Twenty-year-old Romina Tejerina is scheduled to stand trial in June in Argentina, and could very likely be sentenced to life in prison for stabbing to death her newborn daughter.

HEALTH-NIGER: A Hundred Dollars Goes a Long Way to Ending Genital Mutilation

"It’s not easy to give up a profession passed down to you by your parents that you’ve been at for years. But once you become aware of the grave harm you do others in this job, you have to quit," says Salmou Himadou.

HEALTH-AFRICA: Thou Shalt Not Condomise

Muslims and Catholics do not see eye-to-eye on many issues. But when it comes to practices which they fear will allow the encroachment of unacceptable secular values - abortion, gay marriage and condom use - they quickly close ranks to form a united front against the threat.

ARGENTINA: Despite Vatican, President Sacks Controversial Military Bishop

In a decision running counter to the position taken by the Vatican, Argentine President Néstor Kirchner on Friday sacked the country's military bishop, who had quipped that the health minister should be "thrown into the sea" because he is in favour of decriminalising abortion.

BRAZIL: Major Obstacles on the Road to Safe, Legal Abortion

The legalisation of abortion appears to be a distant possibility in Brazil, given the slow pace of any progress in this direction and the controversy that continues to surround the few cases where the termination of a pregnancy is legally authorised.

MEXICO: Anti-Homophobia Campaign Draws Fire from Conservatives, Catholics

When 17-year-old Mexican Antonio Ruiz was murdered, his killer wrote "I'm a faggot" and "queer" on his body. He was one of an average of 30 homosexuals killed because of their sexual preferences every year in Mexico, which will be launching an official government campaign against homophobia in April.

CENTRAL AMERICA: ‘If You Turn Up Dead, No One Will Wonder Why’, Says Child Sex Ring Victim

"If you turn up dead someday, no one is going to wonder how you died," said Kathy, a Honduran girl caught up in a child sex ring. She is just one of an estimated 40,000 minors in Central America whose childhood has been stripped away for the pleasure and profit of adults.

SCIENCE: Penguins Revive Debate on Homosexuality in Animals

At a German zoo, the behaviour of six penguins that formed same-sex couples has revived the scientific debate about the origins of homosexuality in the animal kingdom: biological or social?

HEALTH-MAURITANIA: Low HIV Prevalence, Widespread AIDS Stigma

In the wooden shanty town of Elmina on the outskirts of Mauritania's capital, Nouakchott, AIDS educators do not let religious or cultural conservatism get in their way.

RIGHTS: Lack of Birth Records Leaves Children Open to Predators

When rebel leaders who recruit child soldiers are confronted by U.N. officials or human rights activists, they try to evade responsibility mostly by overstating the ages of rifle-toting children pressed into battle.

RIGHTS-SWAZILAND: For Women, Constitution Is a Curate’s Egg

There are several reasons why women's rights activists might welcome Swaziland's new constitution, intended to replace the document that was suspended by King Sobhuza in 1973. Then again, there are also reasons why they might not.

ARGENTINA: Maternal Mortality Claims Increasingly Younger Victims

Almost one-third of the maternal deaths reported in Argentina result from abortion, which is illegal in this South American nation, and a growing number of the fatalities correspond to women under the age of 20, including girls as young as 10.

HEALTH-KENYA: Do Safer Births Require a Break With Tradition?

"I use a razor, scissors and thread," says traditional midwife Peris Machanja, describing part of her work in delivering a baby. "Sometimes I use gloves, which I disinfect to use for another job – that is, if they are not torn. If they are, I try to get new ones."

POLITICS-PORTUGAL: Church Ruffles Feathers with Comments on ‘Right to Life’

In the 1965 film "Signore e signori" (released in the U.S. as the Birds, the Bees and the Italians) by Italian director Pietro Germi, a Catholic priest gives assurances in his sermon that "The Church doesn't get involved in politics, but it urges you to vote for a party that is both Democratic and Christian."

HUMAN RIGHTS-CHILE: Supreme Homophobia

The Chilean Supreme Court of Justice has been singled out as the Chilean institution most hostile to sexual minorities in 2004, according to a report released by one of the country's leading gay rights organisations.

WOMEN: In Bed with Bush for Four More Years

Four more years of President George W. Bush in the White House will pose a major obstacle for efforts to promote sexual and reproductive health in Latin America, according to Monty Eustace, the president of the International Planned Parenthood Federation/Western Hemisphere Region (IPPF/WHR).

WOMEN: Contraception, the Missing Link in the Millennium Development Goals

A woman who only has children if and when she wants to will be better able to work and to cover her family's needs in terms of food, education and health care.

DEVELOPMENT: Sexual and Reproductive Rights Missing in Millennium Goals

The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) should incorporate sexual and reproductive rights, which were ignored in the targets and indicators adopted by the international community in 2000, along with the recommendations of U.N. conferences on population and women.