News stories by Hannah Rubenstein, page 2

One year after the creation of the Global Jobs Pact, members of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) are considering the measure's impact - and what comes next.

Ephese speaks rapidly, her hands sweeping the air around her for emphasis. Peach-tipped fingernails come to rest momentarily on her peach-coloured skirt as she leans forward, eyes intent behind wire-rimmed glasses. Her French is direct; her words uncompromising.

A U.S. author is standing by claims that Israel offered to sell nuclear warheads to South Africa during the apartheid regime, despite denials by Israel's then-defence minister, now-president Shimon Peres, that the accusation has 'no basis in reality'.

In a vast field, a sinewy, dark-skinned man bends at the waist, slicing stalks of wheat with a small machete. In a village, a mother gently places her infant son, slung in a piece of blue fabric, onto a vegetable scale housed in a makeshift clinic.

Despite a federal moratorium on offshore oil drilling, new permits and controversial environmental waivers for oil rigs continue to be granted, sparking criticism from policymakers and environmentalists.

A decade after the passage of the Optional Protocols to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the United Nations and human rights groups are urging 44 unsigned countries to join in ratifying the treaty.