Until now, Chinese Jews caught in a discrepancy between identity and status, have undergone individual conversion procedures, but as more and more such Jews emerge, it begs the question of whether world Jewry needs to reassess their situation and give them blanket recognition.

As World Malaria Day is marked this week, it will be an opportunity to celebrate the significant progress that's been made, but it will also be a time to question why there are still so many challenges in trying to eradicate this deadly disease.

More than 100 people are known to have been killed and hundreds more injured after an earthquake in Sichaun province, China. According to state off...

90,000 doctors have had their careers stalled by the significant delays of India's Supreme Court. Fury gripped the medical community due to the bureaucratic nightmare that has pushed their patience to the limit.

If you have never heard of stunting, you are by no means alone. A vast human tragedy, it is one of the least reported, least recognized, least understood issues before us. Stunting, caused by chronic under nutrition early in a child's life, blights the lives of some 165million children around the world. It is far more than a problem of inadequate growth/height for these children. It can trap them in a lifetime cycle of poor nutrition, illness, poverty and inequity. Why? Because stunted growth in the first months of a child's life means stunted development of the brain and thus, of cognitive capacity. Permanently.

William Hague's is a welcome voice drawing the world's attention to the urgent need to tackle conflict-related crimes of sexual violence. However, it is also a reminder that governments and the international community have yet to prove they take their obligations on this issue seriously.

If the North Korea's nuclear capability is a shield, this reflects the regime's paranoia or chronic insecurity, and weapons are being developed as a deterrent. If it is a sword, the nuclear capacity is for aggressive purposes and part of an offensive war stratagem, perhaps reuniting the Korean peninsula.

Unzipping the tent showered me in ice crystals, but finally, and a little unsteadily in stood upright and gazed around at the beautiful scene. I trudged to the wash-tent and with a -10 ambient temperature, set about shaving.

Last month, on 27 March to be exact - a Yemeni man was beheaded in the Saudi Arabian city of Jizan and then had his body 'crucified' (ie displayed in public on a pole). It wasn't a one-off. Last year the Saudi authorities also crucified a Sudanese man after his head had been severed by the executioner.

Children's present and future is impacted upon by their country's economic health... their government's policies and ability to take decisions that work actively to prioritise and protect young people's lives are equally significant. All societies agree in principle that the health and the well-being of children is a priority. But there is a very hard-headed case to be made as well for the priorities that need to be attached to child well-being. If a society neglects its children... then that neglect is associated with a long list of adverse consequences in later life, affecting both the individual, and wider society.

2013 sees the UK back in the Chair of the G8. What a great opportunity. Not only because of the great results last time, but importantly because experts tell us that a big push now can totally change the future course of AIDS, and also of TB and malaria.

North Korea has warned foreigners in South Korea to leave the country amid threats of impending war, in the latest bellicose threat from Pyongyang. ...

Ngagne is one of thousands of children living in daaras in Senegal and across the mainly Muslim countries of West Africa, sent to the capitals from Guinea, Guinea Bissau and Mali. Known as talibés - Arabic for 'pupil' - they're posted far away from home by parents who choose to give someone else the responsibility, and cost, of raising their child.

With a bitter wind at our backs we set off across the boulder strewn river plain at little more than a snails-pace - our priority to get Ethan to Lobouche on one piece.

Each of these women had undergone FGM early in their lives, and now, encouraged by my mother, they were talking frankly about how they felt. One of them spoke of the agony that the procedure still caused her three decades later.

Straight up. There was no alternative way to exit sleepy Phortse and still be heading towards our intended destination Pheriche, [the next stop on our journey to BC] than straight up the steep, hill that flanked this picturesque village.

Yesterday had turned into a bit of an epic. After racing up and down the mountain that backstops Khumjung, I had decided that it was time to give myself a decent wash. Over the years Phurba's Lodge has added a number of improvements including a solar-powered electric shower.

The death toll from a new strain of bird flu found in Shanghai, China has risen to six this week as the Chinese government staged a cull of thousands ...