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Thursday, March 18, 2010 13:55 GMT

Latest News

Q&A: Tapping Women's Enterprise to Topple Rural Poverty
By Paul Virgo interviews YUKIKO OMURA, new vice president of the International Fund for Agricultural Development
ROME, Mar 18 (IPS) - Employees at the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) may have cause to fear for their jobs after Yukiko Omura was appointed vice president of the United Nations' rural poverty agency in February.
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VIETNAM: Salinisation, Drought Bring Worries to Mekong Delta
By Tran Dinh Thanh Lam
MEKONG DELTA, Vietnam, Mar 18 (IPS) - He has worked this land for half of 64 years and is known among his fellow farmers in Kien Giang province here in the Mekong Delta as ‘lao nong’, or the old master of rice.
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PAKISTAN : Attacks Bring Humanitarian Work to Virtual Halt
By Ashfaq Yusufzai
Mar 18, PESHAWAR, Pakistan (IPS) - Bomb attacks and threats to non-governmental organisations (NGOs) have brought development work to a virtual halt in the lawless, volatile environment that is the North West Frontier Province (NWFP), located near Pakistan’s border with Afghanistan.
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US-CHINA: Trade War Heats Up
By Eli Clifton
WASHINGTON, Mar 17 (IPS) - Relations between Beijing and Washington have been far from smooth since the beginning of the year.
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HAITI: Recovery Bill Estimated at 11.5 Billion Dollars
By Jim Lobe
WASHINGTON, Mar 17 (IPS) - Two weeks before a major donors conference, the Haitian government has estimated that the country will need some 11.5 billion dollars over the next three years to recover from the devastating Jan. 12 earthquake.
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POLITICS-RWANDA: Woman Vies for Top Job
By Stanley Kwenda
KIGALI, Mar 17 (IPS) - On average women constitute 18.8 percent of representatives in parliaments across the world according to the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU). This gender imbalance has been subject to much feminist criticism and many campaigns for change have been staged to address the status quo. The situation is however different in Rwanda.
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SOUTHERN AFRICA: Unexpected Low Custom Revenue Causes Budget Shortfalls
By Servaas van den Bosch
WINDHOEK, Mar 17 (IPS) - Plummeting revenues from the Southern African Customs Union (SACU) could cause severe financial difficulties in the region, economic experts warn. To make matters worse, the organisation is split over the future of its tariff pool that largely bankrolls the national budgets of its poorer members.
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LATIN AMERICA: NGOs Demand Transparency, Reforms in IDB
By Emilio Godoy
MEXICO CITY, Mar 17 (IPS) - Dozens of civil society organisations in the Americas are demanding greater transparency and accountability as well as structural reforms in the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), ahead of the multilateral lender's annual meeting of governors that starts Friday in the Mexican resort of Cancún.
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RIGHTS: EU Selling Torture Equipment
By David Cronin
BRUSSELS, Mar 17 (IPS) - Equipment designed for torturing prisoners is still being exported from European Union (EU) countries despite a four-year-old ban on such trade, according to a new report by Amnesty International.
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DEVELOPMENT: Spain’s New Drive to Extend its Interests in Africa
By Stanley Kwenda
PRETORIA, Mar 17 (IPS) - Spain is breaking new ground in its relations with Africa through an ambitious programme which has seen it increasing its development funding to the continent more than six-fold from 2004 to reach 1,4 billion euros in 2008.
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Global Affairs

By Mar 18
Tapping Women's Enterprise to Topple Rural Poverty - Employees at the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) may have cause to fear for their jobs after Yukiko Omura was appointed vice president of the United Nations' rural poverty agency in February.
MORE >>

By Mar 17
But South Africa Will Win - Less than a hundred days to go, and the world looks on, often more with scepticism than anticipation.
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By Mar 17
Japan Pushes for Progress in U.S. Nuclear Review - Japanese parliamentarians and activists pin high hopes on the hotly debated and much anticipated U.S. Nuclear Posture Review (NPR) to which the Barack Obama administration is reported to be giving finishing touches.
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By Mar 15
Despite Recession, Global Arms Race Spirals - The global financial crisis has not deterred some of the world's developed and developing nations from bolstering their military arsenals with expensive new weapons systems, including sophisticated fighter planes, combat helicopters, submarines, armoured vehicles and air defence systems.
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By Mar 12
U.S. AIDS Fund Flat-Lining, Groups Complain - The debate between those who favour investment in AIDS treatment and those who favour investment in its prevention came to the forefront Thursday at a U.S House of Representatives hearing on U.S. investments in HIV/AIDS in Africa.
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MDGs

By Mar 18
Tapping Women's Enterprise to Topple Rural Poverty - Employees at the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) may have cause to fear for their jobs after Yukiko Omura was appointed vice president of the United Nations' rural poverty agency in February.
MORE >>

POLITICS-RWANDA

By Mar 17
Woman Vies for Top Job - On average women constitute 18.8 percent of representatives in parliaments across the world according to the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU). This gender imbalance has been subject to much feminist criticism and many campaigns for change have been staged to address the status quo. The situation is however different in Rwanda.
MORE >>

EDUCATION-SIERRA LEONE

By Mar 17
Government Ignores Demands for Additional Teachers - Ismail Conteh has been teaching for the past year-and-a-half at a primary school in Sierra Leone’s capital Freetown – without receiving a single cent. He is one of hundreds of teachers recruited by schools to match the ever-growing number of pupils.
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By Mar 16
"If You Kiss for Five Minutes You Get It" - "At home we have a bar," says grade seven learner David Bravo* (14). "When my mother puts on the music I cannot concentrate on (my) schoolwork anymore. Sometimes, in the middle of the night, I just sit there and watch the people."
MORE >>

By Mar 16
Corruption Carries High Cost, World Bank Says - Poverty is on the rise in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) and various forms of corruption threaten to undermine the impact of investments made to meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in the continent, said the World Bank in a report released Monday on Africa's development.
MORE >>

Environment

By Mar 18
Salinisation, Drought Bring Worries to Mekong Delta - He has worked this land for half of 64 years and is known among his fellow farmers in Kien Giang province here in the Mekong Delta as ‘lao nong’, or the old master of rice.
MORE >>

By Mar 17
Blame on Chinese Dams Rise as Mekong River Dries Up - As the water level in the Mekong River dips to a record 50-year low, a familiar pattern of fault-finding has risen to the surface. China, the regional giant through which parts of South-east Asia’s largest waterway flows through, is again at the receiving end of verbal salvoes from its neighbours.
MORE >>

ENERGY-LATIN AMERICA

By Mar 17
Moving Towards Renewables - Argentina is building its first solar energy park in the northwestern province of San Juan. The project calls for the manufacture of photovoltaic panels to supply the rest of the country and the other member countries of the Southern Common Market (Mercosur).
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By Mar 17
So That Vans May Pollute More - Three years after vehicle-makers succeeded in weakening new European Union (EU) pollution standards for cars, many of the same firms are hoping to frustrate efforts to make vans more fuel-efficient.
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By Mar 16
In Canada, No News is Bad News - Canada's climate researchers are being muzzled, their funding slashed, research stations closed, findings ignored and advice on the critical issue of the century unsought by Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government, according to a 40-page report by a coalition of 60 non-governmental organisations.
MORE >>

Human Rights

By PESHAWAR, Pakistan
Attacks Bring Humanitarian Work to Virtual Halt - Bomb attacks and threats to non-governmental organisations (NGOs) have brought development work to a virtual halt in the lawless, volatile environment that is the North West Frontier Province (NWFP), located near Pakistan’s border with Afghanistan.
MORE >>

POLITICS-RWANDA

By Mar 17
Woman Vies for Top Job - On average women constitute 18.8 percent of representatives in parliaments across the world according to the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU). This gender imbalance has been subject to much feminist criticism and many campaigns for change have been staged to address the status quo. The situation is however different in Rwanda.
MORE >>

By Mar 17
EU Selling Torture Equipment - Equipment designed for torturing prisoners is still being exported from European Union (EU) countries despite a four-year-old ban on such trade, according to a new report by Amnesty International.
MORE >>

By Mar 17
Blame on Chinese Dams Rise as Mekong River Dries Up - As the water level in the Mekong River dips to a record 50-year low, a familiar pattern of fault-finding has risen to the surface. China, the regional giant through which parts of South-east Asia’s largest waterway flows through, is again at the receiving end of verbal salvoes from its neighbours.
MORE >>

By Mar 17
'Day of Rage' Engulfs Palestine - On Tuesday tens of hundreds of Palestinians of all political persuasions took to the streets, alleys and sidewalks as widespread rioting and protests spread across East Jerusalem, the West Bank, Gaza and into Israel proper.
MORE >>

Health

By Mar 16
"If You Kiss for Five Minutes You Get It" - "At home we have a bar," says grade seven learner David Bravo* (14). "When my mother puts on the music I cannot concentrate on (my) schoolwork anymore. Sometimes, in the middle of the night, I just sit there and watch the people."
MORE >>

By Mar 16
Budget Cuts Ahead but More Money for Education and Health - Her swollen feet are a constant reminder to Sanele Matsebula that she needs to take her medication.
MORE >>

By Mar 16
Corruption Carries High Cost, World Bank Says - Poverty is on the rise in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) and various forms of corruption threaten to undermine the impact of investments made to meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in the continent, said the World Bank in a report released Monday on Africa's development.
MORE >>

By Mar 15
Rural Communities Jointly Care for Orphans - At the age of 66, village headman Kamwala of Dedza district in central Malawi is starting to feel the effects of ageing. He gets tired easily and needs frequent naps but says he cannot afford this luxury. He and his wife are caregivers to a one-year-old orphan.
MORE >>

DEVELOPMENT-KENYA

By Mar 15
Rapid Population Growth Threatens Development - Margaret Atieno, a 38-year-old mother of six, says she wanted to avoid her last pregnancy. But consistent stock-outs of contraceptive devices at her health care centre in rural Siaya, western Kenya, gave her no choice but to fall pregnant once again, albeit the fact that she did not want another child.
MORE >>

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