BOLIVIA: Morales Breaks Opposition Boycott, Pushes Through Bills

Accustomed by now to reaching surprise decisions, Bolivian President Evo Morales signed into law at midnight Tuesday a bill for the expropriation of tens of thousands of square kilometres of unproductive land from wealthy families, after political maneuvering that left the opposition dazed.

HEALTH-AFRICA: The Promise and Problems of Telemedicine

As the 11th annual conference of the International Society for Telemedicine and eHealth drew to a close Wednesday in Cape Town, South Africa, the ability of Africa to adopt and sustain telemedicine to improve delivery of health care in under-serviced rural areas came under discussion.

EDUCATION-BRAZIL: ‘Inclusive’ Schools – Bar Some

A popular soap opera that portrays a mother in search of a school that will accept her daughter as just another student has sparked a public debate in Brazil on whether or not children with Down's syndrome should be enrolled in standard schools.

COTE D’IVOIRE: A New Approach to HIV/AIDS in the Blackboard Jungle

Education officials in Côte d'Ivoire are revising how children are taught about the dangers of HIV/AIDS in the West African country, this as statistics from June 2006 show prevalence in schools to be at four percent.

BIODIVERSITY: The Insatiable in Pursuit of the Inedible

In an ironic twist, officially listing a species as endangered drives up its value to collectors and consumers, putting it on an even faster track to extinction, researchers in Paris reported Tuesday.

AFRICA: For Good Health, Think eHealth

The 11th conference of the International Society for Telemedicine and eHealth (ISfTeH) kicked off Monday at the International Convention Centre in Cape Town, South Africa, where delegates from around the globe gathered to discuss the benefits and challenges that eHealth (electronic health) offers to both the developed and developing world.

DEVELOPMENT: Halfway to MDGs, Little to Brag About

Despite making numerous promises over the past six years, the majority of governments have failed to take action on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), U.N. officials said here Monday.

ECONOMY-MAURITIUS: Resistance as Foreign Workers Demand Rights

Fifteen years after they first came to Mauritius, "guest workers" from China, India and Bangladesh still face resistance to their efforts to improve the difficult conditions they live and work under.

DEVELOPMENT-SOUTHERN AFRICA: States Against Zambezi Current

Seventy percent of the Zambezi river's hydropower potential remains untapped because stakeholder countries have failed to ratify an agreement as the first step towards activating this potential.

COLOMBIA: Keeping the Words – and the Whales – Alive

"They take care of their children and drive their husbands away" sing the "cantaoras". Verse by verse, the traditional black singers describe the mating ritual of the humpback whales that visit their breeding grounds in Malaga Bay on Colombia's Pacific coast from June to November.

ENERGY-SAO TOMe AND PRiNCIPE: ‘Promised Land’ Beckons, Under the Sea

The small West African island nation of Sao Tomé and Príncipe is one of the poorest countries in the world, but there are grounds for hope that conditions there may soon improve considerably.

POLITICS-BOLIVIA: Gas Could Be Next Target of Opposition Boycott

The most important challenge faced by the Bolivian government of Evo Morales, to carry out a successful process of nationalisation of the country's energy resources, could be blocked in the Senate if the opposition and the governing party fail to find a way to negotiate their differences.

MEXICO-CENTRAL AMERICA: Juarez Femicides, Just a Drop in the Ocean of Blood

Ciudad Juárez in Mexico has been dubbed "the femicide capital" of the world by human rights organisations because about 400 women have been killed there in the last 13 years. But murders of women are also frequent elsewhere in Mexico, as well as in Guatemala and El Salvador, and so far there is little public discussion about them.

SOCIAL FORUM-CHILE: Another Araucania Is Possible

The music of the Mapuche people played at the opening of the First Social Forum of Araucania, a southern Chilean region characterised by poverty and many social and environmental conflicts.

RIGHTS-PERU: The Struggle for Reparations – in Quechua

Isabel Limancca can express herself much better in Quechua. But she speaks Spanish well enough to wage a struggle against the Peruvian state from this remote town in Peru's southern Andean highlands.

ENVIRONMENT-COLOMBIA: Megaport vs Megadiversity

The Colombian government has chosen the pristine Malaga Bay on Colombia's Pacific coast, which draws tourists interested in whale-watching, for a new deep sea port.

POPULATION: Maternal Mortality Goals Hit by Funds Crunch

A scarcity of funds and a failure to translate national laws into action are undermining hopes of the world meeting a key development goal in 2015 that aims to help women, says a ranking U.N. official.

VENEZUELA: Climate as Polarised as Ever as Elections Loom

"They shall not steal a single one of our votes," vowed opposition candidate Manuel Rosales, after claiming that he had beaten incumbent President Hugo Chávez in surveys of voting intentions for Venezuela's Dec. 3 presidential elections.

MEDIA: South-South Communications Lag Behind Trade Flows

Vigorous expansion of trade between developing countries has created "a new geography of global trade," but communications have lagged behind this and other processes that have increased the gravitas of the South, participants agreed at a seminar in Brazil.

EDUCATION-CAMEROON: Poverty and Culture Conspire to Deny Girls Schooling

Of the 71 pupils in Daouda Soulé's class, only 18 are girls. "Last year there were about 20 girls, but even some...who were promoted to the next grade dropped out and are at home, although primary school is free," the teacher at the Central Public School in Garoua, northern Cameroon, told IPS.

HEALTH: Developing Countries Asked to Pay to Treat AIDS

Developing countries should pay their share to close the financing gap in the campaign against HIV/AIDS, UNAIDS director Peter Piot said Wednesday.