Winter Athletes Call for Action on Climate Change

After another winter of erratic and disappointing snowfall, 75 of the U.S.’s top professional winter athletes are calling on President Barack Obama to take stronger measures to curb climate change.

U.S. Global Health Cuts Threaten Gains on Lethal Diseases

A U.S.-based civil society coalition is calling on Congress and President Barack Obama’s administration to keep spending on global health aid at current levels, warning that recent budget cuts risk a dangerous backslide in health and development gains achieved over the past three decades.

Daring Woman Enters the Contest

“My sole motive is to serve my people, especially women who have had no role in politics so far. I feel we can make progress only by bringing in women into mainstream politics.”

Q&A: Obesity and Hunger Are Two Sides of the Same Problem

Over 40 million children under the age of five were overweight in 2010. In fact, since 1980, the worldwide prevalence of obesity has doubled, according to the British medical journal the Lancet.

The Other Side of the Coin in Spain

Wholemeal rye bread, lettuce and chard are some of the products on offer from the El Caminito urban vegetable garden at the small organic produce market in this southern Spanish city, with prices set in "comunes", one of more than 30 social currencies circulating in the country.

Water Shortage Hits Pacific Women

The Solomon Islands, a developing island nation in the south-west Pacific Islands, has one of the highest urbanisation rates in the region, and the basic service infrastructure is struggling to cater for the influx of people from the provinces to the capital, Honiara. Thirty-five percent of the city’s population, who live in informal settlements, are facing the health consequences of a dire shortage of clean water and sanitation.

These Kids Have Won Already

Oblivious to the cloud of dust they have kicked up in just a few minutes, panting and sweating, moving lithely, this way, then that, they jostle the ball smoothly until one team scores a goal.

Troops May Join Mexico’s Fight Against Hunger

The Mexican government is considering using the armed forces, which face serious human rights accusations from their involvement in the war on drugs, to collect socioeconomic data from the low-income households that will benefit from the National Crusade Against Hunger.

Incomplete Justice in Killings of Amazon Activists

Peasants and human rights defenders in Brazil are indignant over the acquittal of the man accused of ordering the May 2011 murders of two prominent Amazon activists, José Cláudio Ribeiro da Silva and his wife Maria do Espírito Santo.

Getting Past Aid to Develop

With the level of Western aid to the world’s poorest countries declining amid the global financial crisis, economists are calling for “innovative” means of development that range from proper taxation of multinationals to laws that ensure gender equality.

Women Take the Stage Against Taliban

The Taliban may have placed a ban on theatre, but women in Pakistan’s northern provinces won’t allow the threat of the militants’ reprisals to keep them off the stage.

U.S. Banks Too Big to Fail, or Just Too Big?

Following last week’s approval of U.S. Senate bills that critics say would weaken a major financial reform law known as Dodd-Frank, watchdog groups here are cautioning that banks deemed “too big to fail” still pose a risk to U.S. and international economic security.

Guarded Optimism Over Iran Nuclear Talks

With talks over Iran's nuclear ambitions set to resume Apr. 5 in Almaty, Kazakhstan, there is guarded optimism that negotiators can build on the moderate breakthroughs made in discussions held earlier this year.

French Senate Debates Same-Sex Marriage

French senators have begun examining a controversial bill to legalise same-sex marriage and adoption, prompting protests by opponents keen to see the reform thrown out.

New Brazilian Research Centre Focuses on Health Risks of Smoking

Brazil has taken another step to combat the harmful habit of smoking with the creation of the Centre for Studies on Tobacco and Health (CETAB).

Social Forum Spawns a New Form of Solidarity

The conference drew both supporters and opponents of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad; conflicting opinions about the Polisario Front and the politics of Western Sahara; Palestinian activists and the Jewish Anti-Zionist Network. In short, the 13^th edition of the World Social Forum, held in Tunis on Mar. 26-30, was a melting pot of struggles and a search for common ground.

As Iraq Becomes Iran-Like

Armoured vehicles and thousands of soldiers masked in black balaclavas guard the entrance to the city of Mosul, 350 kilometres northwest of Baghdad. Arriving here gives one the unmistakable feeling of entering a territory that is still under occupation – only this time, the Iraqi Federal soldiers, not the U.S. military, play the role of the occupying army, locals tell IPS.

Leaking Pipeline Offers Warning on Keystone XL Proposal

Environmental groups are sounding alarms about conflicting reports on the size and seriousness of an oil spill that took place late last week in the southern U.S. state of Arkansas.

Tajikistan Government Critic Missing for Two Weeks

Early on Mar. 15, a 58-year-old man put on his tracksuit and left home in Qurghonteppa, a 90-minute drive south of Dushanbe, Tajikistan’s capital. Morning exercise was a regular part of his routine, says Amnesty International.

Laughter Heals in Cuban Hospitals

Three-year-old Yanaghy García has been in the William Soler Children's Hospital, in the Cuban capital, for a month. He suffers from epilepsy, but he forgets about it all for a while and smiles at the antics of Mantequilla, a clown.

Falcons Love the Taliban

While the Taliban’s military activities continue to plague Pakistan’s northern Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), the incessant violence has been a blessing in disguise for one creature: the falcon.