Women lawmakers in Uruguay have joined forces across party lines, in spite of criticism from colleagues in their own parties, and have built majorities to approve laws in favour of gender equality and other rights that have been denied for years.

Breaking from President Barack Obama's insistence on 'moving forward, not backward' in investigating U.S. detainee torture, the British government appears poised to investigate its own complicity with the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in 'rendering' British citizens and residents and subjecting them to 'enhanced interrogation' techniques.

After several rounds of intense eleventh-hour negotiations last week over the structure and composition of a proposed new 'gender entity' and its executive board, the United Nations has cleared the last of the remaining political hurdles towards the creation of a separate and distinct U.N. agency for women.

HIV-positive Phiona* (19) had unprotected sex with her best friend and she prays that she did not infect him with the virus. She knew she should not have let it happen but Phiona was too scared to tell him her status, and the teenagers did not have access to condoms.

While the goal of gender equality is embraced by almost all countries, the perception that men are - and should be - favoured in employment and education remains widespread, especially in poor nations or predominantly Muslim countries, according to a survey released Thursday by the Pew Research Center's Global Attitudes Project (GAP).

'There will be two years of abundance, and then famine,' says Brazilian indigenous leader José Carlos Arara, laying bare his opinion of the promises that the Belo Monte hydroelectric dam will not alter the living conditions of the people in this part of the eastern Amazon.

U.S. President Barack Obama criticised 'ill conceived' immigration laws in Arizona and called on Republicans to end their opposition to immigration reform and pass bipartisan immigration reform in speech delivered Thursday morning.

Ten U.S. citizens or lawful residents are suing the government for placing them on the 'no-fly' list without notice or due process and then giving them no way to get their names off the list.

Ayed Morrar is just one man. A quiet man, of small stature, whose kind but intense eyes look out from behind wire-rimmed glasses. But he is a man who has become the face of the Palestinian non-violent resistance movement.

The sight of girls and boys playing cricket and skateboarding together in the streets of Afghanistan and Iraq may be unexpected to some, but it is a homegrown effort aimed at fostering gender equality.