Mel Frykberg

GAZA CITY, Jul 9 2008 (IPS) – 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.

Sawsun Duba supports seven children and a disabled husband. Credit: Mel Frykberg

We are looking at a political and socio-economic breakdown as financial deprivation and desperation, combined with political instability continue to…

Zofeen Ebrahim

MEXICO CITY, Aug 6 2008 (IPS) – Preaching abstinence to the young has not worked, nor has sex work been eradicated. Experts gathered here for the 17th International AIDS Conference say it is time to put public policies under the microscope and see why they have failed.

IranFreeTheDocs.org flyers distributed at the International AIDS Conference. Credit: Zofeen Ebrahim/IPS

Why do policies ostensibly put in place to protect sex workers end up penalis…

David Cronin

BRUSSELS, Sep 25 2008 (IPS) – Almost two years after the European Union resolved to step up its efforts to address the shortage of doctors and nurses in poor countries, its progress has been found unsatisfactory by the bloc s own officials.
In December 2006, the EU s governments approved a programme of action for ensuring that a higher number of qualified health workers are made available to treat the world s poor.

But a new assessment by the European Commission, the EU executive, says it is impossible to tell if the level of funding provided to obtain this goal has increased since then because not enough data has been furnished by the EU s governments. It complains, too, that most of the relevant activities financed by the Union are being pursued in an u…

Aaron Glantz*

OAKLAND, California, Nov 17 2008 (IPS) – Thirty-three-year-old Walter Williams was among the thousands of revelers who flooded into the streets of Oakland on Nov. 4 to celebrate Barack Obama s election as the 44th president of the United States.
Williams, a U.S. Army veteran who served tours in both Iraq and Afghanistan, initially had trouble coping with his return from the war zone. He did drugs and slept in his car and the homes of his friends, before stabilising himself and landing a job at the San Francisco non-profit Swords to Plowshares, where he helps other veterans find work.

On election night, Williams told IPS he had sworn off participating in the electoral process after the lies I saw in the desert , but became excited about Obama s campaign a…

Mallika Aryal

KATHMANDU, Jan 12 2009 (IPS) – Impoverished Nepal has dramatically reduced maternal mortality cases from 540 per 100,000 live births in 2001 to the present 280 a feat experts attribute chiefly to the legalisation of abortion.
The number of deaths related to unsafe abortion was very high, says Indira Basnett, a leading reproductive health expert. When abortion was legalised, the number of women dying due to pregnancy-related causes dramatically decreased.

Since 2002, abortion has been legal upon request during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy, when the woman s life or health is in danger, and in cases of rape, incest and foetal impairment. This decision came about in the form of an amendment to Nepal s Civil Code.

From early 2004, the Nepali gove…

NEW DELHI, Feb 27 2009 (IPS) – As Sri Lanka s armed forces battle the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in their last stronghold, the island country s influential neighbour, India, is weighing diplomatic options to goad President Mahinda Rajapakse s government to save civilians trapped in the war zone.
The number of civilians is estimated to be as high as 200,000 to 250,000. Many have been displaced by the war five or even 12 times over. Currently, according to the best estimates, 25 to 35 people are being killed every day.

India s ruling United Progressive Alliance (UPA) is under pressure from its constituents from the southern state of Tamil Nadu to go beyond verbal exhortations to Colombo to stop civilian killings, help evacuate the large numbers of stranded people…

Kristin Palitza

DURBAN, Apr 1 2009 (IPS) – Researchers are now investigating if antiretroviral (ARV) drugs can play a role in not just treating HIV, but in preventing infection. Mitchell Warren, executive director of the AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition (AVAC), called it a pivotal moment in HIV/AIDS research .

Lloyd Mutungamiri

MASERU, May 4 2009 (IPS) – The Lesotho government battling against the challenges presented by an ever-growing population of orphans whose parents have succumbed to the AIDS pandemic has embarked on an ambitious programme aimed at alleviating the suffering of these vulnerable children, in partnership with the European Union and UNICEF.
For the next year, 1200 households in three districts of Mafeteng, Maseru and Qacha s Nek will receive a quarterly cash grant of 38 dollars in the pilot phase of this programme. The grants are expected to be extended to similar households in other districts of the country by the end of 2011, with the main objective being to keep these children in school by catering for their school fees, uniforms, health care and other basic n…

Danielle Kurtzleben

WASHINGTON, Jun 1 2009 (IPS) – Drug trafficking was once thought to be a largely Latin American problem, but the international community increasingly finds itself fighting this phenomenon in Africa.
Africa, and, most notably, West Africa, has become a major centre of the international drug trade in recent years, leaving U.S. and international organisations scrambling to deal with the problem, said a panel of experts on the subject at the Woodrow Wilson International Centre for Scholars.

Conservative estimates say that 40 to 50 metric tonnes of cocaine pass through Africa each year. However, such figures are by nature uncertain and based on drug seizure rates, which are themselves also imprecise.

The worldwide cocaine seizure rate is around…

Erin Cunningham

GAZA CITY, Jun 29 2009 (IPS) – They are little white, yellow or green pills and are available almost anywhere. At the pharmacies or in the market, they are accessible, addictive and cheap.
I take them because it makes me forget, at least for a little while, that I m in Gaza, says Abu Ala a, a resident of the strip and father of four. There is no alternative.

Looking to escape years of war, searing poverty and an unrelenting economic blockade, medical officials in the Gaza Strip say residents have developed a serious addiction to the narcotic painkiller Tramadol.

The embattled enclave s borders have been hermetically sealed by both Israel and Egypt for two years, and an Israeli military assault last winter killed some 1,500 Gazans.

Gaz…