Marwaan Macan Markar interviews MICHEL SIDIBE, chief of UNAIDS

BANGKOK, Mar 24 2009 (IPS) – The global financial crisis has created a space for a vigorous debate on the life-prolonging drugs needed for people living with HIV, says Michel Sidibe, the new head of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS).

Michel Sidibe Credit: UNAIDS

The global financial crisis has created a space for a vigorous debate on the life-prolonging drugs needed for people living with HIV, says Michel Sidibe, the new head of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS).

Against such a prospect, however, is the i…

Ali Gharib

WASHINGTON, Apr 24 2009 (IPS) – About one million people die every year from malaria, including a child every 30 seconds. Half a billion people are infected annually. Africa alone, according to studies, loses 12 billion dollars in productivity and to treating the disease. And almost all of it is easily preventable.
But resources have been scarce and attention to the killer mosquito-borne disease relatively low, in large part because the disease burden rests almost exclusively in the poorest countries.

On the eve of World Malaria Day on Apr. 25, leaders of international agencies, activists, and U.S. President Barack Obama, among a host of others, are set on changing this situation.

The United States stands with our global partners and people around …

Shari Nijman interviews JUNE OSCAR, CEO of Marninwarntikura Fitzroy Women’s Resource Centre

UNITED NATIONS, May 22 2009 (IPS) – In 2007, a group of aboriginal women from Fitzroy Crossing in Western Australia decided that the only thing that could save their community from going under was to impose a complete ban on the sales of takeaway alcohol.

June Oscar Credit: Shari Nijman/IPS

In the previous year, the community had witnessed 13 suicides and many alcohol-related deaths, resulting into a funeral every week. By pushing for a drinking ban, the women of Fitzroy Crossing hoped that the …

Ranjit Devraj

NEW DELHI, Jun 16 2009 (IPS) – As the annual scrimmage for coveted seats in India s engineering and medical colleges gets underway, what many students dread is the sadistic ritual of ragging or hazing that they expect to undergo at the hands of their seniors.
I know that the Supreme Court has passed directions ordering the government to take steps to curb ragging but I doubt they can be enforced, says prospective engineering student Prahlad Goyal, who hopes to enter one of the several Indian Institutes of Technology.

On May 7 moved by the death of Aman Satya Kachroo, a first-year student at a medical college in the Kangra district of Himachal Pradesh state following a brutal beating by his seniors the apex court issued orders to all provincial governmen…

Emilio Godoy

MEXICO CITY, Jul 27 2009 (IPS) – What happened to me shattered my dreams, my hopes I wanted to be someone who worked outside the home but I spend all day at home looking after the baby I can t even sleep and I feel very unsafe, many of my days are a nightmare, it s very hard to carry on and I feel very sad and very tired, said M , who was raped at age 17 by a relative.
Even though she was a victim of incest and rape, M , who spoke with representatives of Amnesty International on their visit to Nicaragua last week, was unable to abort the pregnancy because of the ban on therapeutic abortion in place in this Central American country, one of the poorest in the hemisphere, since 2008.

The Amnesty report issued on Monday, The total abortion ban in Nicaragua: W…

Thalif Deen interviews Anders Berntell, Executive Director of the Stockholm International Water Institute*

STOCKHOLM, Aug 18 2009 (IPS) – We can provide astronauts with a safe supply of drinking water when they travel to the moon, but we cannot provide the same service to slum dwellers in Kibera, Nairobi or Dharavi, Mumbai, Anders Berntell, executive director of the Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI), told a gathering of over 2,400 participants at the annual World Water Week concluding Friday.

Anders Berntell Credit: Stockholm…

LUSAKA, Sep 22 2009 (IPS) – The economy s down, the price of fertiliser s up. And Zambian farmers are stealing sewage for their vegetable gardens.

Farmers dig canals like this one to lead waste water directly to their gardens. Credit: Lewis Mwanangombe/IPS

Yes, raw sewage is a cocktail of germs that can cause life-threatening illnesses. Sanitation officials in both Lusaka and the Copperbelt province are accusing peri-urban farmers of …

LUSAKA, Oct 4 2009 (IPS) – For 70 minutes, the girls in the distinctive gold-and-green jersey of Brazil shut out the attacks by the visiting team. The bare feet of chubby-faced left back Njavwa Silungwe are lively in defence.

Jennifer Tembo is one of scores of vulnerable girls finding support in local football. Credit: Lewis Mwanangombe/IPS

The yellow-clad Chibolya Queens eventually lose the match. But their team s mer…

Zenzele Ndebele and Nasseem Ackbarally

MIDRAND, South Africa, Nov 11 2009 (IPS) – Water is a resource that binds people together, for better or worse.

Building a catchment pond in Uganda: Africa Water Week is a forum to discuss water issues across the continent. Credit: Glenna Thomas/IRIN

The care taken to prevent pesticides or sewage from washing into water supplies in one plac…

Chryso D’Angelo

NEW YORK, Dec 2 2009 (IPS) – When I saw the leaves on the trees curl and turn black and birds fall dead out of the sky, I knew that this was Death, come among us as foretold. My regret is that I survived, said a native of Bhopal, India after a gas leak at a pesticide plant killed 8,000-10,000 people in 1984.

The abandoned Union Carbide pesticide plant in Bhopal, India. Credit: Bhopal Medical Appeal

A quarter century later, the disaster continues to unfold, an …