News stories by Kanya D'Almeida, page 9

Up a rubble-strewn street, turn right past a crumbled house, and 60 men and women are in the yard and parlor of the offices of the Commission of Women Victim-to-Victim (Komisyon Fanm Viktim pou Viktim, KOFAVIV) association.

Few are aware that close to one billion people in over 100 different countries are suffering from or severely threatened by intense desertification. Yet awareness is crucial, for it is human behaviour that has led to the proliferation of hyper- arid, uncultivable drylands over the past few decades.

When the horrors of the Cold War began to wane in the late 1980s, U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Russian President Mikhail Gorbachev met in the Icelandic capital Reykjavik to discuss the 'complete abolition of nuclear weapons'.

While the U.S. Congress idles on the passage of the DREAM Act, immigrants here face ever harsher treatment. The rate of deportations has increased by 1,200 percent since 1990, from 30,000 per year then to a staggering 360,000 under the Barack Obama administration.

On Nov. 29, the 190-member Conference of Parties (COP) will flock to the Moon Palace Hotel, an all-inclusive luxury coastal resort in Cancún, Mexico, to discuss governments' progress on climate change.

What if young boys were imbued with a sense of empathy and fair play to counteract a culture that victimises women? Could they grow up to become part of a generation that renounces gender violence once and for all?

On May 30, 2003, the Depayin Massacre in Burma (Myanmar) left at least 70 people dead. A failed attempt to assassinate opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, the attack was carried out by the pro-junta political militia, the Union Solidarity Development Association (USDA).

Women from a dozen countries convened in New York this week to share their struggles to implement state legislation and empower women at the grassroots level to put an end to gender- based violence (GBV) worldwide.

On Nov. 11, the Group of 20 (G20), representing the interests of countries who collectively produce over 85 percent of global wealth, will gather in Seoul, South Korea for its fifth summit.

Afghanistan will not know peace until women are equal participants in negotiations, stresses a report released Thursday by the University of Notre Dame's Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies.