The catastrophic floods in Pakistan have added urgency to a high-level United Nations summit this week, with delegates from mostly South Asian nations convening Tuesday to call for increased technology transfer from richer countries and to compare strategies to avert the worst effects of climate change.

Rights activists met in the Egyptian port city of Alexandria this week to discuss and adopt effective strategies to persuade Arab regimes to abolish the death penalty.

Judges and other judicial officers in Argentina have begun to receive training on gender equality and women's rights, as part of a broad programme that could serve as a model for similar initiatives in the rest of Latin America.

Harassment and sexual exploitation by border officials seeking bribes constitute the biggest obstacles for female informal cross-border traders in Africa, according to a United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) research study launched on Sep 21.

Mercy Freeman sits on a small hospital cot in one of Liberia’s emergency hospitals, looking down at her frail son, whose dark eye sockets have sunk into his bony face.

Less than two months after Pakistan was devastated by one of the worst disasters in recent history, the European Union's lawmakers have decided that Pakistanis living in the 27-country bloc without permission should be returned home.

For five years, Sana Yasir toiled through medical school and then was awarded at the end with a diploma and a bright future. After completing the required year-long clinical practice, however, Yasir got married and quit the workplace.

The son had cared for his sick father, and when the old man died, he buried the body in his garden. But the son did not tell the authorities about his father’s death, as required by law. Instead, he continued to act as if his father was still alive, and collected the old man’s pension.

While officials meeting in Montreal, Canada failed to finalise a key protocol to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) Tuesday, biodiversity is scheduled to be at the top of Wednesday's agenda of the U.N. General Assembly in New York.

The 'people's' climate agenda that the Bolivian government and civil society produced at an April conference in Cochabamba has made its way to the official United Nations negotiating table. But its inclusion in a binding climate treaty is unlikely, say activists.