DEVELOPMENT-CAMBODIA: Urban Poor Enjoy a Rare Luxury – Tap Water

Finally, at the age of 50, Heng Sokhou has begun to enjoy a fact of life that many in Asia and elsewhere have taken for granted for years - a tap with flowing water just a few feet from her bed.

SRI LANKA: Labour ‘Reform’ Hurts Workers – Critics

As the government speeds up investor-friendly labour laws, Sri Lanka's trade union movement believes the country is sinking under the spell of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank, and is threatening to pull out from an apex labour advisory group.

FINANCE: Profitable Year for South Africa

By all accounts, South Africa will end its financial year with the government having collected more money than it spent over the last 12 months.

LABOUR: Unions say IMF Pressuring Croatia to Cut Worker Protection

International labour unions say they will help Croatia resist pressure from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to liberalise its labour legislation, a move they say would threaten workers' rights and create social instability in a country still reeling from years of war and civil strife.

ECONOMY: Strong Public Interest in South Africa’s Telcom

It may not have been a referendum on South Africa's economic policy, but the government is taking surprisingly strong public interest in its plans to sell part of the state-owned telecommunications company, Telkom, as an endorsement of its plans to restructure and privatise state companies.

CHILE: Inequity in Education, Health the Result of Privatisation

The highest proportion of rejected university applicants this year in Chile was found among graduates of public high schools - one of the clearest indications of the inequalities generated by the partial privatisation of the country's educational system.

LATIN AMERICA: Corruption Accentuates Economic and Social Crises

Rampant corruption is increasingly undermining the credibility of democracy and politics in Latin America, although some countries have made progress against the scourge, Transparency International (TI) stated in its latest report, released Wednesday.

TRANSPORT-LATAM: Commercial Airlines in Non-Stop Crisis

The problems plaguing commercial aviation in Latin America, worsened by the Sep 11, 2001 attacks in the United States, are expected to plunge even deeper as a result of the looming U.S.-led war against Iraq.

PHILIPPINES: Privatisation Fails to Plug Water Woes

Filipino homemaker Erlinda wakes up at five each morning to wait for her family's daily ration of water. That is because her faucet runs dry after half an hour, barely filling up a water tank that she had installed years ago to store what has become a precious resource.

ENERGY: Growing Demands Prompt Burkina Faso to Import Electricity

Growing demands for power supply have prompted Burkina Faso to import electricity from neighbouring Cote d'Ivoire.

VENEZUELA: Nat’l Political Battle in Midst of Global War over Oil

Venezuela's political conflict forms part of the struggle for control over global oil resources, although from abroad there have been attempts to resolve the stand-off between the government and the opposition.

LABOUR-EL SALVADOR: Three-Month Strike Paralyses Health Services

The public health system in El Salvador has been brought to a standstill by a three-month strike against its privatisation, and the deficit of health services could give rise to social chaos in January.

FINANCE: IMF Strong-Arming Debtors Despite New Lending Guidelines

Three months ago, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said it had adopted a new set of lending guidelines that would permit borrowing countries to take control of their economies like never before.

ENVIRONMENT-INDIA: Last Ditch Attempt to Save Wetland

Driving southward of this parched southern metropolis, the Pallikaranai wetlands first announce themselves to passersby through an overpowering stench of garbage.

DEVELOPMENT: Free Water Activists Urge End to Pre-paid Meters

Groups that oppose water privatisation are urging companies that make water meters to immediately stop producing them because the devices help make clean and safe water inaccessible for millions of poor people across the globe.

MEDIA-FRANCE: Protest over Privatisation of TV

A strike against low budget allocations and moves to privatise television is poised to enter its fourth week.