WHO : Overhaul needed on rules on NGOs' relationship (PRIV)
(Sangeeta Shashikant, London)
The World Health Organisation's executive body meeting in Geneva this week is expected to take important decisions on the organisation's relationship with non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that may include overhauling the current antiquated principles.

Mexico : Even educated young women face poor, jobless future (PRIV)
(IPS, Mexico City)
The year 2012 started off with little promise for workers in Mexico, with analysts projecting job losses and wages below subsistence levels.

Canada : Opposition builds to new "tar sands" pipeline (PRIV)
(IPS, Montreal)
As public hearings began earlier this month into a controversial pipeline that would transport crude oil from the Alberta tar sands to tankers along the coast of British Columbia, environmental groups and First Nations communities have raised staunch opposition to the project, which they say puts both the environment and their traditional way of life at risk.

El Salvador : Twenty years of peace fail to bring prosperity (PRIV)
(IPS, San Salvador)
Two decades after the signing of the Peace Accords, together with the social commitments they contained, El Salvador's levels of poverty and violence are so high that academic and social leaders are proposing new accords to overcome the crisis.

Europe : Separate schools for Roma challenged (PRIV)
(IPS, Bratislava)
A school in Slovakia has defended its decision to segregate Roma children from other students after a court ruled the practice breached equal rights laws.

Bangladesh : Farmers bet on climate-proof crops (PRIV)
(IPS, Dhaka)
With floods, droughts and other calamities battering deltaic Bangladesh regularly, farmers need little prompting in switching to climate-resistant varieties of rice, wheat, pulses and other staples.