SOUTH KOREA: &#39Toilet Training&#39 for Adults Underway

Move over toddlers, adults need to be potty-trained too.

Q&A: “The U.S. Has Its Own Toilet Problem”

Come Nov. 21, the United Nations will formally launch the "Ínternational Year of Sanitation, 2008", with the primary goal of finding ways to provide toilet facilities to some 2.6 billion people worldwide who lack proper sanitation.

PHILIPPINES: Water Privatisation – Boon or MNC Conspiracy?

Supporters call it a model for the future. But critics say it is a conspiracy by multilateral financial institutions to privatise water supplies and open the floodgates for multinational corporations (MNCs) to reap profits from Asia's poor.

Q&A: "TB and XDR-TB Are Not an African Problem Only"

In a world where countless humanitarian causes clamour for action and funding, raising money to combat tuberculosis (TB) can prove a challenge.

HEALTH-AFRICA: TB and AIDS Campaigns Urged to Co-operate

Tuberculosis (TB) in Africa cannot be dealt with while TB and HIV/AIDS organisations refuse to set aside their differences, health experts said Friday during the 38th Union World Conference on Lung Health, underway in Cape Town, South Africa.

IBERO-AMERICA: Summit on Track to Protect Migrants’ Social Rights

The Multilateral Convention on Social Security, to be signed at the 17th Ibero-American Summit in Chile, is an important step toward improving the quality of life of poor people in this community of nations, according to its governments.

ENERGY: Fossil Fuel Train Heads into Overdrive

Today's skyrocketing fossil fuel use will accelerate far faster in the coming decades, driving oil prices higher and virtually guaranteeing catastrophic climate change in the decades to come, energy experts say.

HEALTH-AFRICA: Prevalence of Extensive Drug-Resistant TB Unclear

What is known so far about the scope and prevalence of extensive drug-resistant tuberculosis (XDR-TB) in sub-Saharan Africa may only be the tip of the iceberg, said TB experts Thursday during the 38th Union World Conference on Lung Health, in the South African coastal city of Cape Town.

TRADE-EAST AFRICA: Chaos On Eve of EPA Deadline

On the eve of the deadline of the finalisation of the economic partnership agreement (EPA) negotiations, chaos reigns.

DEVELOPMENT: Aid "Dismally Slow" in Reaching Poorest

Aid strategies must be retooled and bigotry stamped out if a rising tide of global wealth is to reach the poorest of the poor, says a new report.

DEVELOPMENT: Millennium Goals Are Possible

The world’s poorest countries, even those of sub-Saharan Africa, are ‘’approaching’’ the Millennium Development Goals, the new Trade and Development Index (TDI) indicates.

EUROPE: &#39Biofuels Can Hurt the Poor&#39

A body tasked with shaping European Union policy on biofuels is dominated by companies with a vested interest in promoting this source of energy, environmentalists have claimed.

DEVELOPMENT: Food to Biofuels a "Recipe for Disaster"

A long-held basic human right, the right to adequate food for the world's 854 million hungry people, is being threatened once again - this time by the conversion of wheat, sugar, palm oil and maize into agricultural fuel.

ENVIRONMENT: Sanitation Beyond Septic Tanks and Sewers

To meet one of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and halve the number of people without basic sanitation by 2015, the world must make a radical shift away from septic tanks and sewers, say experts and activists.

RIGHTS-COTE D&#39IVOIRE: Fighting FGM From Mosque and Pulpit

In certain parts of Africa, female genital mutilation (FGM) has been linked to religion, with Muslim communities mistakenly believing that the practice is a religious requirement. But in Côte d'Ivoire, religion is also being put at the service of fighting FGM.

Q&A: &#39We Need Partners, Not Masters&#39

Bolivian President Evo Morales visited Italy this week to receive a special award for his government's commitment to social and health issues. He has made these issues a "political priority."

COLOMBIA: Malaria Winning the Battle in Choco

The Atrato River is "full of malaria", according to a dozen men in rubber boots, standing in the water that has inundated the village of Tanguí, in Colombia's north-western jungle.

TRADE-KENYA: Court Bid to Stop EPA &#39&#39Human Rights Violations&#39&#39

An unexpected challenge has been directed at the economic partnership agreement (EPA) being negotiated between the European Union and the east and southern African group. Two lobby groups have filed a law suit in Kenya to halt the signing of the EPA.

ASIA: Water Services – Fee or Free?

Access to safe water may be touted as a human right, but inadequate supplies, crumbling water systems and the galloping needs of growing populations are forcing experts, government utilities and funding agencies to ponder over devising sustainable water service networks in Asia’s teeming cities.

DEVELOPMENT: Our Youth, Their Future

With young people a growing segment of the world's poorest, their voices in setting global development policies at the highest levels have never been more important.

HEALTH-AFRICA: HIV and TB – An Ever Deadlier Combination

The prevalence of tuberculosis (TB) amongst people living with HIV in sub-Saharan Africa has reached crisis levels and will escalate further if decisive steps are not taken, says a new report by the Forum for Collaborative HIV Research - 'HIV-TB Co-Infection: Meeting the Challenge'.