The Islamic resistance movement Hamas's rule of Gaza is facing protracted political and military opposition from within Gaza, other Palestinian territories and abroad.

Zimbabweans like to believe that there is strength in numbers, which is the idea behind a local non-governmental organisation’s attempt to organise small-scale rural cotton farmers in cotton producer associations.

Women are celebrating a hard-won victory for gender rights after intense public protests led to today’s re-arrest of the country’s police boss – a self-confessed wife-killer.

A rare visit by a United States senator to Burma – billed as 'successful' in some quarters – is winning little applause from sectors critical of the military regime that rules the country.

'You look as good as ever,' was the radio message that Olga Valderrama sent over the airwaves to her son, army corporal Antonio Sanmiguel, who is being held captive somewhere in the jungles of Colombia by the FARC guerrillas.

A study on men having sex with men (MSM) in Malawi shows that, as elsewhere in the developing world, this vulnerable group at greater risk of contracting HIV and AIDS than the general population. Moreover, their risk status is exacerbated as governments fail to target them for health services or information to stem HIV transmission.

A much-ballyhooed U.N. summit on climate change, scheduled to take place on Sep. 22 in New York, is mired in controversy even before it gets off the ground.

In what is considered a milestone in the fight against gender-based violence, the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) and the Philippines-based Coalition Against Trafficking in Women- Asia Pacific (CATW-AP) conducted the first ever all-male youth workshop on gender sensitivity in Thailand on May 9-10. Of those who applied for slots, 30 university students from Bangkok were selected to participate. CATW-AP executive director Jean Enriquez talks to IPS about the significance and impact of the workshop on changing the misconceptions of men about women and helping put a stop to violence against women.

Like all forms of abuse, ending violence against women is as much men’s fight as it is women’s. It’s a good thing some members of the opposite sex are taking on this challenge.

Property tax collectors from across Egypt gathered last week in Cairo to protest fresh attempts by the official state trade union to undermine their independent syndicate.