UNITED NATIONS,Mar 26(IPS)-Amid calls for Washington to increase itsengagement with the international community, U.S.-based rightsgroups and civil libertarians are denouncing the Barack Obama’sadministration’s boycott of a global conference against racismnext month.

NEW YORK,Mar 26(IPS)-More men are taking advantage of paternity leave oreven quitting their jobs entirely to raise small children whiletheir wives go to work, but the social stigma attached to fatherswho take on roles traditionally viewed as female has been farslower to diminish.

BUENOS AIRES,Mar 23(IPS)-The colourful new magazine of the InternationalCommunity of Women Living with HIV/AIDS (ICW) in Latin Americaand the Caribbean has a modern look and provides not onlyinformation but articles on fashion and entertainment. It is alsothe perfect size to carry in a purse.

SAN DIEGO, California,Mar 22(IPS)-The San Diego Latino Film Festival is perhaps thebiggest little film festival most people outside of SouthernCalifornia have never heard of.

MANAGUA,Mar 20(IPS)-The first criminal prosecution for racialdiscrimination in Nicaragua, in response to a complaint broughtby a woman lawmaker in the Central American Parliament(PARLACEN), has focused attention on the segregationist treatmentof indigenous and Afro-Caribbean women in the Caribbean coastalregions.

CAPE TOWN,Mar 20(IPS)-Churches from South Africa and Germany arecritically interrogating neoliberal globalisation in a processthat they want to take up to United Nations level and also totheir congregations‘‘to build responsibility among people forwhat is happening in their world’’.

BANGKOK,Mar 20(IPS)-For now, the United Nations’refugee agency hasbeen given breathing room to operate in a western corner ofmilitary-ruled Burma, where humanitarian programmes offer somecomfort to the persecuted Rohingya Muslim minority.