May 1998

POLITICS: Anti-crime Campaign Shakes Chile

Sales of firearms, electric stun guns, paralyzing nerve gases, alarms, guard dogs and virtually every other type of security or self-defense device is soaring throughout Chile.

REFUGEES-POLITICS: EU Helps Colombians Displaced by Violence

By IPS Correspondents

The European Union is putting up close to five million dollars this year to support programs designed to help families displaced by violence in Colombia.

ENVIRONMENT-INDIA: Spirited Rescue For Biodiversity

By IPS Correspondents

Reviving the ancient concept of the inviolable 'sacred-grove,' inhabited by spirits, may be India's last chance to preserve the country's rich but seriously threatened biodiversity.

NARCOTICS-ST. LUCIA: Rastas Say No to Random Drug Testing Proposal

By IPS Correspondents

The 16-year old student walked into the principal's office at Vieux Fort Comprehensive Secondary School. He locked the door preventing Dr. Morella Joseph's escape. And while an accomplice kept watch, he attacked her with a machete.

ENVIRONMENT BULLETIN-MEXICO: CFC Smugglers Active in Mexico

By IPS Correspondents

While Mexican authorities are in the the forefront in terms of measuring solar radiation and warning of its dangers, smugglers are dealing in chemicals that destroy the ozone layer, according to environmentalists here.

DEVELOPMENT BULLETIN-RWANDA: Courting Europe With Flowers

By IPS Correspondents

Rwanda plans to fly flowers to Europe as part of plans to diversify its exports away from the traditional tea and coffee and thus boost an economy struggling to recover from war and genocide in 1994.

DEVELOPMENT BULLETIN-LATIN AMERICA: Laws and Marches Have Little Effect on Child Labour

By IPS Correspondents

International treaties and local legislation enacted over the past few decades have done little to eradicate child labour, which affects close to 200 million girls and boys worldwide.

DEVELOPMENT BULLETIN-BANGLADESH: Economic Woes Blamed on Unions

By IPS Correspondents

The Bangladesh government is under increasing pressure to ban the country's powerful trade unions which are accused of enforcing strikes with muscle power and bringing businesses to a halt on a whim.

DEVELOPMENT BULLETIN-COTE D’IVOIRE: Market Forces Reign Supreme

By IPS Correspondents

Consumers in Cote d'Ivoire have been hit by a spate of food price hikes, but there is little they can do about it since the West African nation has no laws to protect them against speculators.

DEVELOPMENT BULLETIN-AFRICA: ‘Golden Age’ Ahead, If Women Are Included

By IPS Correspondents

The next decade promises to be a "golden age" for Africa, but tefruition of this opportunity depends on the integration of women into Africa's political and economic systems, African and United Nations experts say.

DEVELOPMENT BULLETIN-JAMAICA: Women Hit Hardest in Spate of Factory Closures

By IPS Correspondents

With 80 percent of workers in the garment industry being women, each time another factory closes its doors it means that hundreds, or even thousands of wmen are sent to the unemployment lines.

DEVELOPMENT BULLETIN-ASIA: Downturn Draining Health Budgets

By Suvendrini Kakuchi

Asia's economic downturn is sapping the region's health resources, putting women and the poorest at greatest risk and threatening to reverse hard-fought gains made in improving health over the decades.

DEVELOPMENT BULLETIN-MEXICO: Business Moving Ahead – For Some

By IPS Correspondents

Despite a slump in oil revenues, the business climate in Mexico has greatly improved in past months - in some sectors. In others, however, social polarization and poverty are intensifying.

DEVELOPMENT BULLETIN-AFRICA: Pretoria’s Free Trade Talks with EU Worry SACU

By IPS Correspondents

Small Southern African nations linked in a customs union with South Africa fear that a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) being negotiated between the European Union (EU) and Pretoria will endanger their fragile economies.

DEVELOPMENT BULLETIN-SOUTH AFRICA: Unions Propose Job-Creation Strategy

By IPS Correspondents

South Africa's labour unions warned Wednesday that the high rate of job loss in the country had to be averted to avoid political instability.

ENVIRONMENT BULLETIN-NEPAL: Electric Cab May Answer Pollution Problems

By IPS Correspondents

That noiseless, electrically-driven, three-wheeler taxi, whizzing by on Kathmandu's busy streets, may just be the answer to Nepal's vehicular pollution problems.

ENVIRONMENT BULLETIN-DISARMAMENT: Non-Aligned Object to Nuclear Sharing Arrangements

By Gustavo Capdevila

The Movement of Non-Aligned Countries (NOAL) called for the elimination of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation's (NATO) nuclear sharing arrangements, at an international conference on disarmament Tuesday.

ENVIRONMENT BULLETIN-UNITED NATIONS: Business, Unions Debate Voluntary Initiatives

By Farhan Haq

Government, business and non- govermental organisation (NGO) leaders are making new efforts to encourage corporations to adopt environmentally-friendly policies, but not everyone in developing countries is happy with this approach.

ENVIRONMENT BULLETIN-BRAZIL: 9.5 Million Facing Hunger Caused by Drought

By Mario Osava

Drought has brought the spectre of hunger over some 9.5 million people in Brazil's impoverished northeastern region, where hungry crowds have started to loot supermarkets and warehouses.

ENVIRONMENT BULLETIN-SRI LANKA: Sri Lanka to Build Up Food Seurity With FAO Help

By Feizal Samath

Taking a hard look at the widening gap between farm productivity and food security, Sri Lanka has unveiled plans to review agricultural policies with the support of the Rome-based Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO).