CHILE: Corruption Scandals Contrast with Clean Reputation

Most Chileans have a very poor opinion of politicians and acknowledge that corruption is firmly rooted in their government and a number of State institutions, according to surveys.

TAJIKISTAN: Gender Equality Clashes With Culture, Religion

Women have played important roles in rebuilding Tajikistan after the country's civil war of the 1990's. But women in this central Asian country still have many obstacles to overcome to reach equality with men, according to some local activists and international observers.

HEALTH-SOUTH AFRICA: Solidarity With Developing Nations – At a Cost

As concerns continue to be expressed about the departure of African medical professionals for wealthy countries, South Africa says it is not recruiting health workers from developing nations - something that also reflects the country's own experience of the medical "brain drain".

DEVELOPMENT-BENIN: A Blow Against Poverty

Benin is hoping that a five-year, multi-million-dollar grant from the United States under the auspices of the Millennium Challenge Account (MCA) will finance development projects to reduce poverty, notably through resolving land ownership and credit problems.

BRAZIL: Racism Reflected in Health System

Brazil's minister of health, Agenor Álvares, has admitted that the public health system is imbued with racism, stirring up more controversy over policies for specific treatment plans targeting Brazilians of African descent.

DEVELOPMENT: ‘Get Back to Basics, South Asia’ – Oxfam

Every 30 minutes an Afghan woman and six Indian women die in childbirth, yet annually India welcomes 150,000 "medical tourists" who fly in for cheaper treatment than they can receive at home in the 'developed' world.

ENVIRONMENT-AFRICA: Changing Climate, Changing Lives

Marginalised communities attending a United Nations conference on climate change being held in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, have given accounts of how their lives are being altered for the worse - something they blame on climate change.

ENVIRONMENT-CHILE: Recycling – An Idea Whose Time Has Come

Schools, city governments and companies in Chile have started to recycle their solid waste, but experts say they need help from the government to replicate these initiatives all over the country.

PERU: Will Agro-Export Programme Benefit All Farmers?

The poor campesino exporting his products to the world is one of the images most highly touted by Peruvian President Alan García. But his Sierra Exportadora programme, which begins to operate this month, runs the risk of concentrating its efforts only on those already able to compete in the market on their own.

LATIN AMERICA: Economists Discuss Alternatives to Free-Market Model

Some 90 left-leaning Latin American economists are meeting in the Chilean capital to discuss ways to build "a society with neither exploited nor exploiters" and construct bridges between academia and social movements.

ENVIRONMENT: From Mosques to Mollusks, No Haven From Rising CO2

Three hundred and eighty parts per million. That's the current concentration of carbon dioxide going into your lungs with each breath. Our parents or grandparents' first breaths at birth contained about 290 parts per million (ppm), as it was for everyone born before them.

DEVELOPMENT: Panel Endorses New U.N. Women’s Agency

Dissatisfied with the outcome of U.N. efforts to reduce poverty, gender inequality and environmental degradation, a high-level panel has called for drastic changes in the way the world body reaches out to many countries that need help in achieving development.

HAITI/DOMINICAN REPUBLIC: Early Sex Initiation and AIDS

Early sexual initiation and a lack of prevention policies are sowing the seeds of AIDS proliferation, warns a UNICEF study carried out at locations straddling the border between the Dominican Republic and Haiti.

DEVELOPMENT: Spain Gives Boost to Global MDG Partnership

Spain is making strides towards compliance with the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) "with the total backing of the government," said the Secretary of State for International Cooperation, Leire Pajín.

DEVELOPMENT: Turning the Tide on Human Suffering

If the world's growing water crisis remains unresolved - depriving clean water to more than one billion of the world's six billion people - it will jeopardise the U.N.'s longstanding battle to reduce global poverty, hunger and disease by its targeted date of 2015, the U.N. Development Programme (UNDP) warned Thursday.

ENVIRONMENT-COLOMBIA: The Rain Harvester

Colombian lawyer and activist Rodrigo Vivas won the 2006 Sasakawa Prize, awarded annually by the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) and The Nippon Foundation, for his "rainwater harvest" project, aimed at combating desertification.

DEVELOPMENT: Report Details Toll Taken by Lack of Water, Sanitation

The 2006 Human Development Report, 'Beyond Scarcity: Power, Poverty and the Global Water Crisis', focuses on the ongoing problems that surround provision of potable water and sanitation. The document is being launched Thursday in Cape Town, South Africa, by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

IRAQ: Bechtel Departure Removes More Illusions

The decision of the giant engineering company Bechtel to withdraw from Iraq has left many Iraqis feeling betrayed. In its departure they see the end of remaining hopes for the reconstruction of Iraq.

BOLIVIA: Cochabamba’s ‘Water War’, Six Years On

Six years after the people of Cochabamba reversed the privatisation of the city water company, access to water has improved and rates have been raised only slightly. However, there is still a long way to go.

DEVELOPMENT: Microcredit Not Just For “Poor” Countries

In a conservative industry focused on the bottom line, Patti Mason doesn't sound like your ordinary bank president. The former airline accountant turned banker is animated while discussing the merits of commerce as a form of economic empowerment.

RIGHTS-NIGERIA: “People Always See Us As Health Hazards”

"When I go home, I often notice that as soon as I come, all the towels, soaps and sponges that were in the bathroom will disappear," says Isaiah Ojeabulu. He chairs the Human Rights Association of Persons Affected by Leprosy, an organisation in Nigeria, and has himself suffered from leprosy.