ARGENTINA: Countryside No Longer Synonymous with Healthy Living

Once a serene refuge from urban pollution and chaos, the Argentine countryside has now become a place fraught with risks for many local residents. The massive use of pesticides on fields of soy, the country’s top export, is creating a "health catastrophe" in the rural sector, environmentalists warn.

LABOUR-PHILIPPINES: Meltdown – Women Most Vulnerable

Shaynar Bacon was working as a cashier in a shopping mall in Mindanao, southern Philippines, when she learned that an electronics manufacturing firm in Taiwan was looking for workers.

DEVELOPMENT: Financial Crisis Threatens Women’s Meagre Gains

The spreading global financial crisis - which has taken a heavy toll of international bankers, investors and speculators - is also having a devastating impact on some of the most vulnerable and marginalised groups in society, including women and children.

BRAZIL: Happiness Is Promoting Health and Development in the Amazon

On his fourth trip to Brazil, Prince Charles plans to visit a project in the Amazon jungle that has cut infant mortality and illiteracy nearly in half by organising poor communities to get involved in their own development.

DEVELOPMENT: High-Protein Pea Ideal for Drought-Hit Farmers

Agricultural researchers are reporting a major breakthrough in the development of a new, high-yielding variety of pigeonpea, a protein-rich legume that can be grown in marginal lands and is highly resistant to drought.

Q&A: “Time Has Come for a New U.N. Women’s Agency”

After being blind for years to the needs and rights of women, the United Nations is finally well on its way to create a "fully-resourced" women's agency, says Stephen Lewis, the former U.N. Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa.

LABOUR: Women’s Household Chores Unpaid, Unrecognised

The 1983 Hollywood comedy 'Mr. Mom' portrayed the story of a laid-off auto-worker reluctantly forced to play the role of a housewife and homemaker after losing his job.

WATER-NAMIBIA: ‘Decentralisation’: Code for Recovering Costs From the Poor

What if a well-intended programme to democratise water management is really a poverty trap? This is a question a soon to be published study on Namibian rural water supply poses to decision makers.

HEALTH-ZIMBABWE: Doctors Fear High Risk of Drug-Resistant TB

Zimbabwe’s crumbling health system makes it almost impossible to detect and treat tuberculosis (TB), doctors say. As a result, they suspect the country has large numbers of unidentified cases of multi-drug resistant (MDR) as well as extensively drug resistant (XDR) TB.

COLOMBIA: Equal Rights for Same-Sex Partners

Members of the gay civil rights advocacy group Colombia Diversa just celebrated their fifth anniversary with a big event, which the occasion clearly merited due to a recent landmark decision by the Constitutional Court recognising equal rights for heterosexual and same-sex partners in common-law unions.

WATER-NAMIBIA: Policy to Create a Water Scarcity?

Several 20 litre buckets of water are crammed inside the small enclosure around the only tap in Epingiro, a small gathering of kraals in the Kavango woodlands in northern Namibia.

DEVELOPMENT-NEPAL: Women Everesters Talk Gender Equality

Seven young women have started a seemingly commonplace programme of video presentations at schools in this mountainous Himalayan country. The programme’s contents however are unique.

CLIMATE CHANGE: New Thinking to Tackle Old Problems

Organic and eco-friendly farming can feed the world, contrary to the common belief that biotechnology and chemical-intensive farming are indispensable, modern strategies to increase production, agricultural experts say.

RIGHTS: U.N. Flunking on Gender Empowerment, Women Say

The United Nations is coming under heavy fire for the lack of vibrant leadership and the continued absence of adequate structures to advance the long-touted cause of gender empowerment worldwide.

MIDEAST: Under the Bombing, A Girl Child Called Hope

Ghalia Hussein's husband refused to evacuate their Rafah home near the Israeli border amid heavy bombardment during the recent 22-day siege. Struck by a missile at the top of their stairs, he bled to death while ambulances attempted to reach him. He left Ghalia three children, a destroyed home, and no income to speak of.

ZIMBABWE: New Cabinet Ignores Quota for Women

Women’s rights activists in Zimbabwe are outraged by the low representation of female politicians in the new unity government. Only four women are part of the 35-member cabinet, laughably short of the equal representation of women in decision-making that Zimbabwe signed onto at a regional summit in September 2008.

POLITICS: Shadow Meet to Challenge Elites at Americas Summit

The organisers do not expect newly elected U.S. President Barack Obama to attend their parallel three-day meeting, even though he is likely to be in Trinidad and Tobago at the official Fifth Summit of the Americas in April.

UAE: Women’s Participation is the Norm

In the gender-sensitive Gulf milieu, efforts by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to empower women and recognise them as partners in the nation-building process has received praise, but experts stress that the scope for improvement is limitless.

WORLD: No Quick Fix for Malnutrition and Hunger

Almost five million children under the age of five die of malnutrition every year in the developing world. Food aid – which mainly contains nutrient-poor carbohydrates - does little to address the absence of a diverse diet that would prevent the condition.

Q&A: Sanitation Crisis Runs Deep in Africa, Asia

As part of the International Year of Sanitation (IYS), the United Nations launched an aggressive campaign last year to fend off what it called a "silent global crisis": the woeful lack of adequate sanitation in the world's poorest countries.

RIGHTS-PAKISTAN: Peace Deal With Taliban Setback For Women

The ceasefire agreement reached by the provincial government in the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) and the Taliban on Feb.16, involving implementation of shariah (Islamic law), is being seen as a setback for women’s rights in the area bordering Afghanistan.