News stories by Lynette Lee Corporal

Teenage boys gape at a coloured photograph of a vagina, while girls give embarrassed smiles as they watch a cartoon that showed penises 'talking' about masturbation. Young girls crowd around a display panel about love and relationships, as a boy embraces a female mannequin with all his might in order to measure the strength of his hug.

Buy a hairpin and the sales clerk has a microscopic plastic bag for it. A soda purchase from a corner store may end up having the liquid poured into a plastic bag, and then topped off with a plastic straw. There is no plastic bag yet that could fit a car, but if there was one country that could come up with one, Thailand would probably be it.

They were about 1,000 when they began, but that number quickly dwindled to some 400. Now the women working at Try Arm are down to 30, yet those running the cooperative that makes women’s undergarments are determined to succeed.

They were about 1,000 when they began, but that number quickly dwindled to some 400. Now the women working at Try Arm are down to 30, yet those running the cooperative that makes women’s undergarments are determined to succeed.

'Our village was attacked many times. (The Burmese military) would come and take whatever they wanted from the village. Anything they don't want, they'd burn,' said 19-year-old K K, recalling his experiences six years ago in the country’s southern Karen state.

Government and international non-government organisations need to put as much effort in fighting the spread of complacency in the battle against the H5N1 virus as they do in curbing avian flu itself, experts say.

Cambodia's media organisations are a 'battleground' for old ways and new approaches when it comes to gender.

Far from looking at climate change as a distant theoretical issue for scientists and environmentalists to dissect, countries that share the Mekong River would do well to realise that it is first and foremost a development issue that threatens to affect food, environment and everyday lives.

After nine months of a rollercoaster ride pushing for a gender perspective on climate change, advocates are finally beginning to reap the fruits of their labour.

Against the backdrop of challenges ranging from the global financial crunch to the popularity of new media, editorial cartoonists are drawing up ways to be creative in more ways than one.