'Did you have to pay for anything?' is the obligatory question these days in the waiting room at the Mother and Child Hospital in Fernando de la Mora, on the outskirts of the Paraguayan capital, where people still have doubts that the public health services are free of charge, as the government had announced.

The year that has just ended was the worst for the Argentine economy since the 2002 and 2003 economic collapse. However, both government officials and economic analysts say the worst of the present crisis is over and that growth will return this year, in the light of improved internal and external conditions.

'After work, when I'm on my own, I'm bored to death. If you want amenities, you have to bring them yourself,' says young forestry worker Alejandro de Leiva, who works on a tree plantation in the western Uruguayan province of Paysandú, where he lives and works for 10 to 12 days in a row, with just two days off.

The documentary 'Living in Emergency' is as graphic as it is gripping, following doctors working in humanitarian crises as they face death, disease and despair in Liberia and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

Public anger over the light sentencing of a retired top police official in the northern state of Haryana for molesting a 14-year-old girl may well prove to be the trigger for police reforms in India — a country clinging on to oppressive colonial laws framed in 1861.

In the wake of a botched Christmas Day airliner bombing claimed by al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), the direction of what used to be called the 'global war on terror' settled on Yemen this week, with the United States slated to escalate economic and military assistance to the country's beleaguered government.

Shonal Chand, 16, has ditched school to work full time to assist his financially struggling family. He sells pineapples, watermelons and other local seasonal fruits by the roadside six days a week.

The recent deportation of Hmong asylum seekers to Laos has shown that Thailand’s powerful military remains the dominant player in shaping the relationship between this South-east Asian kingdom and its immediate neighbours.

Nearly one year after his inauguration, hopes that President Barack Obama would bring fundamental changes to U.S. relations with Latin American have faded badly.

Cellular phones have quickly become a popular and effective means of communication in Zambia, but their use has been concentrated in urban areas. Government and NGOs are now trying to extend these services to rural people.