Household-farmer cooperator in the municipality of Belison, Antique prepares his vegetable area to be planted with squash and okra which are among the recommended vegetables under the Gulayan ng Masa program.

At the deep end of that risk pool are the 5,000-plus denizens of the Downtown Eastside's notorious residency hotels, also known as SROs. After quietly sheltering British Columbia's shabbiest population for decades, investors have begun acquiring these historic Victorian abodes for redevelopment. Squatters took over vacant North Star hotel last fall.

Hong Kong's Tin Shui Wai is far from its famous Victoria Harbour, as seen from Causeway Bay (above).

Sub-Saharan Africa still sees the most cases of HIV/Aids.

Europe's food and drink industry could face new regulations if it does not try harder to tackle obesity, the European Commission has warned. More than half of Europe's population is overweight.

Beach resident Lee – identified in this story by only her middle name – has been hoarding items she finds invaluable for more than 20 years.
CRONIS | VIRGINIAN-PILOT

Shizuo Kambayashi, AP
A man walks into a 24-hour Internet manga cafe in Tokyo. Experts believe there is a new social strata in Japan — poor, young people who live out of cheap, 24-hour Internet cafes to escape the streets.

Allyson Brown, MSW, program officer for Concern Worldwide U.S., the Dublin, Ireland-based international humanitarian relief and development organization holds a child in a Rwandan village, her most recent stop.

Lecturers have voted unanimously to oppose government plans urging them to fight against extremism on campuses.

Vancouver homeless youth. Photo | E Briere.

As Gainesville officials ponder options for moving homeless residents off a 100-acre site south of downtown known as "Tent City," many warn that solving the problem will not be as simple as forcing them to leave.

MORE TO IT THAN MEETS THE EYE: Even as the Capital prepares to host the Commonwealth Games-2010, there is no getting away from scenes such as this one here on Janpath. - PHOTO: S CHAKRAVARTY

Alcoholic drinks will carry new health warning labels by the end of 2008 under a voluntary agreement between ministers and the drinks industry.

Kellie Lim, who never let becoming a triple amputee when she was 8 keep her from achieving her dream of being a doctor, recently finished a pediatrics rotation at UCLA’s medical center. She will graduate Friday from the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA.
(M Boster | LAT)

S ANDERSON | Courier-Post
Leavenhouse has served meals to the needy in Camden since 1981. It will close Thursday.

California is one of only three states that still require all adults in a home applying for food stamps to get their fingerprints taken.
B WECHTER | North County Times

Women's rights key to Africa AIDS crisis: study AIDS activists demonstrate outside South Africa's Parliament in Cape Town in a file photo. Improving women's rights could boost the battle against AIDS in southern African countries, where women are often forced into risky sex by male partners or economic desperation, a new report said on Friday. REUTERS | M Hutchings

A story of the massacre began a movement ... can a movie do the same? Actors Adam Beach and Anna Paquin.
(Photo | courtesy photo)

An elderly woman collecting and loading her cart full of tinned drink cans which can later be sold for recycling, in one of the world's most densely populated areas, in the Mong Kok district of Hong Kong, 14 May 2007.(AFP | M Clarke)

Minister of Social Transformation presents a token of appreciation to team leader Aymara Guzman with the assistance of Joyce Moving (C) and Robelto Hector (L)

A nurse carries a baby doll, demonstrating the Jikei Hospital's baby drop-off system as the new procedure is unveiled to the media in the southern city of Kumamoto, Japan, May 1, 2007.
Kyodo News / AP

View image - Novelty seekers lose less weight

Angelo McClain spent five years on a 41,000-acre ranch for troubled adolescents in West Texas, played tight end on the West Texas A&M University football team, earned a doctorate in social work at Boston College, and survived five years of bureaucratic infighting in the wilds of New Jersey politics.
(T LARSEN | BOSTON GLOBE)

Katherina Nikzad, a University of Kentucky social work doctoral candidate has been selected as a 2007 Hartford Doctoral Fellow.

Image: © ISTOCKPHOTO | S KAULITZKI
PLASTIC PHASE: Johns Hopkins researchers have identified a two-week window in the young life of a new neuron in the adult brain when it is as adaptable as a brain cell in a newborn baby.

KIND HEARTS: Rosie Cooper, centre, presents flowers to foster carers, left to right, Margaret Phelan, Sylvia Thomas, Ann Hansen and Wendy Arthur

Jesse Rae Beard: one of the 'Jena Six' students on trial

J Barracoso
In addition to being the largest food bank in Washington, the Operational Emergency Center teaches an Infant Mortality class to educate parents about how to care for their child. The children can play in the daycare while the parents attend the class.

A self-portrait by Odaka Oduku, part of the Headliners exhibition

Photo: Joseph Benamse/IRIN
Bernadette Sayo, founder and chairwoman of OCODEFAD. Mouvement de libération du Congo (MLC) rebels killed her husband then raped her in 2002.

The government will fail to halve child poverty in Britain by 2010 unless it spends another £3.8bn, a children's charity has warned.

Christy-McMullin is an associate professor in the School of Social Work

FL MORRIS
Satosy Santa inside his cubicle at the Next Step homeless shelter in Kakaako. He works part-time as a security guard but still lives in the shelter, unable to afford Hawaii's high cost of housing.

According to a new Statistics Canada study, men aged 20 to 64 who had divorced or separated were six times more likely to report an episode of the mental illness than were men who remained married. Women on the other hand, were only 3.5 times more likely to have had a bout of depression. Photograph by : Getty

Seventy per cent of India's people make their living on the land. Millions of farmers, spread out across rural India, have had to watch the value of their products depreciate on the international markets.

Staff at Liberty Children's Home in Ladyville, Belize, supervise children on the playground. The facility serves orphans in the developing country who need a school and a place to live.

Jessica Anderson, 16, says working on The Voice gave her "a new outlook on life." (Daily News/R Taplin)

A US helicopter provides cover as members of the Afghan Eradication Force destroy poppies grown to produce opium.
Picture: Getty

Papua New Guinea villagers were left homeless after a volcanic eruption on a nearby island at the weekend reportedly sent large waves sweeping through villages

Nurses have staged a series of strikes ahead of the election

Standing her ground: Emily Twigg rejected an offer from her wealthy attacker in exchange for silence. Picture: F Hamilton

Professor Singh has been accused of setting psychiatry back 20 years

View image - ALS distress differs by country

University of Louisville Kent School of Social Work professor Annatje Faul

Illustration by Chris Rubino
Developed with psychiatrists and endorsed by advocates for the mentally ill, Virtual Hallucinations is being used by law enforcement, corrections, and health care professionals in at least half a dozen states.

Baby Catherine was left in a cardboard box at the Dandenong Hospital in Melbourne a week ago. (ABC TV)

View image - ADHD, conduct problems linked to alchol abuse

VICTORIOUS MOM: Deanna Fogarty recently won a $4.9 million judgement against the County of Orange after social workers wrongfully took her children away from her.
M RIGHTMIRE | ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

Ireland has seen a transformation over the past 10 years on a scale previous generations could never have predicted.

MSU associate professor Frank Kauffman says he wants his ordeal to change him for the better.

Gino VanGundy (left) and Chris Moffet-VanGundy sit with their soon-to-be adopted daughter in their Fairfield home. Gino VanGundy lived in more than 20 foster homes in 14 years as a child.
Chronicle | CK Hernandez

Staff | RR Rubiera
Johnny and Suzie McLean say race is not an issue when they open their home to foster children. ‘Children want to be loved,’ Suzie says. ‘They want to know that they are important to somebody and that someone is going to care for them.’

B Bisping | Star Tribune
“It’s a gift that will keep giving,” Larry Turner said of the memorial at the offices of Suicide Awareness Voices of Education (SAVE) in Bloomington.

Some are protesting an elder care facility's plan to implant electronic chips into the arms of Alzheimer's patients that would link to their medical records. (K Albrecht)

J Ayres | The Birmingham News via AP
Tracy Harris teaches abstinence at Center Street Middle School in Birmingham, Ala. The New Hope Baptist Church received a federal grant of $600,000 annually over five years to teach abstinence to students in the city schools.

J Nozawa
Social work professor Amanda Barusch is preparing to leave for New Zealand where she'll teach. Her husband will join her later.

A patient at a facility in Chengdu. Most Chinese who suffer from depression do not get proper treatment due to a lack of psychiatrists and public prejudice, state press reported Friday, citing the country's mental health professionals(AFP/File/L Jin)

Foster carers in Glasgow are refusing to take on new children until concerns are addressed over the way allegations against them are dealt with.

U.S. scientists are getting the first comprehensive look at how children's brains and behaviors change over time, and it's yielding some surprises. It turns out that much-touted differences in the mental evolution of boys and girls aren't so pronounced after all.

Elizabeth Burton-Phillips with her son Simon, whose twin brother killed himself

Researchers at the Alzheimer's Society will look at the effects of fruit juice, red wine and oily fish on the incidence of mental illness.