POPULATION-PHILIPPINES: Catholic Church Damns The Pill

As World Population Day was being marked on Jul. 11, Tess and Andy were attending a family planning seminar as a requirement for their forthcoming wedding. It turned out to be window into one of the major problems besetting the Philippine population programme.

Q&A: "Reproductive Rights Can Overcome the Conservative Wave"

This year marks four decades of international recognition of people's right to decide how many children they want to have and when, and for that reason there is a great deal to celebrate, says Brazilian expert Carmen Barroso, of the International Planned Parenthood Federation.

AUSTRALIA: Court Upholds Free Speech at Major Catholic Event

While young Catholics from around the world have converged on Sydney to rejoice in their faith during this year’s World Youth Day, others are celebrating the removal of a controversial regulation which would have made protesting during the event a risky venture.

POPULATION-INDIA: Emergency Contraception Pill The Answer?

With unintended pregnancies and unsafe abortions continuing to be a serious problem in India, some doctors have begun advocating use of the emergency contraceptive (EC) pill as a possible solution, though conditions in India are regarded far from conducive.

RIGHTS-KENYA: Commission To Challenge Silence on Sexual Crimes

No sooner did Kenya's Commission of Inquiry into Post-election Violence begin public hearings last week than it was overwhelmed by the enormity of the task at hand.

Q&A: "A Silent Housing Crisis Is Unfolding"

With a billion people living in slums, and thousands more joining them every day, the world faces yet another looming challenge - the rise of an impoverished urban underclass, says Anna Tibaijuka of the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (U.N. Habitat).

POPULATION: UN Predicts 12 Billion if Family Planning Falters

The United Nations commemorated World Population Day Friday in the shadow of a staggering array of grim statistics: an estimated 200 million women worldwide want to delay or avoid pregnancy but are not using safe and effective family planning.

RIGHTS: ‘Gay Acceptance Related to Income’

The past few months have seen victories and setbacks in the international struggle for gay rights. In June, Norway became the latest country to legislate in favour of allowing same-sex marriages. In May, however, Gambian President Yahya Jammeh issued homosexuals with a 24-ultimatum to leave the West African country, threatening to decapitate those who remained.

POPULATION-PAKISTAN: Illegality Inducing Unsafe Abortions

For thousands of Pakistani women, the World Population Day message of ‘Family planning is a right, let’s make it real’’ must sound hollow when they must resort to unsafe, illegal abortions while a debate on whether termination of pregnancy is Islamic or not rages on.

Q&A: Family Planning In Its Infancy in South Sudan

With few roads and almost no health and education infrastructure for the estimated 10 million people of South Sudan - an April census has yet to release any results - health care workers have an enormous task ahead of them.

POPULATION-INDIA: One-Child Ideal Catching On

Ponni, 27, lay quiet on a missionary hospital bed in this small town, groggy from the anaesthetic administered to her for a caesarean delivery a couple of hours earlier.

HEALTH-SOUTH SUDAN: Welcome New Attention to Maternal Care

A vast pregnancy has swollen the tiny woman walking South Sudan's shining new maternity ward clutching two pieces of paper stapled together. She looks no more than 16, wide-eyed with recent pain.

POPULATION-MIDEAST: Israel Fears the Womb More Than the Bomb

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has laid it out in the starkest possible terms for his fellow Israelis. If they do not relinquish control of the occupied territories, he has warned them, Israel will ultimately cease to exist as a Jewish and democratic state.

POPULATION-MIDEAST: Time Bomb Ticking Away in Gaza

Crowded into a tiny strip of territory of 360 square kilometres, plagued by poverty, malnutrition and unemployment, Gaza's 1.5 million people face a demographic time bomb as the fragile infrastructure struggles to cope with a soaring birth rate.

NICARAGUA: “The Women’s Movement Is in Opposition”

The action taken on abortion by the governing Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) in Nicaragua is "a betrayal" of women, who were "key allies" of the 1979 revolution. Therefore there has been a "radicalisation of the women’s movement," which is declaring itself in opposition, activist Sofía Montenegro told IPS.

HEALTH-MALAWI: Water Woes in Model Hospital

Gladys Mawera's face is contorted with pain -– both she and her newborn baby survived a complicated birth three days ago - but she has not been able to take the painkillers and antibiotics prescribed to her by the medical personnel at the Chiradzulu District Hospital in southern Malawi. The hospital has been without water for five days.

CUBA: The ‘Telenovela’ as Springboard for Public Debate

Months have gone by and he still receives suspicious calls on his cell-phone. Memories of a woman who became obsessed with him are triggered every time Chucho sees a popular prime time Brazilian TV "telenovela".

DEVELOPMENT-GHANA: No Place to Lay Their Heads

Agbogbloshie Market is a vibrant market in the heart of Accra, Ghana's capital, where one can buy almost anything. But the market is also the stage for a sad tale of many who gain nothing from the commercial bustle: hundreds of young girls from the northern part of the country who work as porters in Accra's markets.

RIGHTS: Mistreatment of Widows a Poorly Kept Secret

Millions of women in many parts of the world are facing discrimination and abuse simply because they happen to be either widows or divorced, according to a new report released by a U.S.-based independent research organisation.

RIGHTS: Security Council Revisits Rape as Tool of War

Eight years after the U.N. Security Council passed a landmark resolution dealing with gender, peace and security, women and girls are still routinely victimised in conflict zones around the world, often in the most brutal and horrific ways.

RIGHTS: Poll Finds Scant Support for Criminalising Abortion

A new poll reveals that three-quarters of respondents in 18 geographically and culturally diverse countries reject the use of criminal penalties to discourage abortions.