Zofeen Ebrahim KARACHI, Pakistan, Aug 9 2010 (IPS) – With its latest hotline a surefire hit, the non-government group Aware Girls could not be any happier. As a mother tries to get her baby to sleep, misoprostol has triggered a debate on its use to induce abortion. Credit: Kulsum Ebrahim/IPS We received about 30 such…

PARIS, Sep 7 2010 (IPS) – The United Nations declared 2010 the Year of Biodiversity. But 17 years after the Convention on Biological Diversity was adopted at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, the issue of biopiracy is still pitching North against South. A worker at the African Centre for Biosafety s Imingcangathelo Project…

Wambi Michael BUDUDA, Uganda, Sep 29 2010 (IPS) – John Mahanga sits on his hospital bed, coughing persistently. The 42-year-old has been suffering from tuberculosis (TB) for the past three years. He has been in treatment for it, but repeatedly stopped taking medication when he felt better. Doctors have now diagnosed him with multi-drug resistant…

Ansel Herz PORT-AU-PRINCE, Oct 24 2010 (IPS) – Days after an outbreak of cholera began in Haiti s rural Artibonite region, killing at least 200 people, there are now five confirmed cases of cholera in the busy capital city. The cases do not represent spread of the epidemic because they were infected in central Haiti,…

Nastasya Tay JOHANNESBURG, Nov 24 2010 (IPS) – Aluminium giant BHP Billiton s Mozal smelter has begun bypassing its fume treatment centres, emitting potentially dangerous fumes into the air without treating them first despite a pending court case on the matter. The company says it needs six months to upgrade fume treatment centres, during which…

Enrique Gili SAN DIEGO, California, Jan 11 2011 (IPS) – It s hardly news that the U.S. love affair with electronic gadgets has a dark side. The global toll on natural resources and the potential health and environmental hazards are staggering. A mobile e-waste recycling station. Credit: Courtesy of ecoATM In order to alleviate the…

Marwaan Macan-Markar BANGKOK, Feb 25 2011 (IPS) – Outdated laws that treat same-sex relations as a crime in a third of Asia-Pacific countries fuel fresh HIV infections, especially among men who have sex with men (MSM), a most vulnerable community. Experts see it as a blot on global advances made in HIV control and are…

Isolda Agazzi GENEVA, Mar 18 2011 (IPS) – Local and foreign investment on the African continent is slowly moving away from agriculture and raw materials to manufacturing, services, communication and tourism, despite poor infrastructure and low skills levels. Nozipho January-Bardill, group executive for corporate affairs at Mobile Telephone Networks (MTN), a South African company. Credit:…

Marcela Valente BUENOS AIRES, Apr 18 2011 (IPS) – In many cases, cancer is preventable, treatable and curable if detected on time. But the fate of millions of women with the disease varies enormously, depending on where they live. Women wait for cancer screening exam in a Buenos Aires public hospital. Credit: Marcela Valente/IPS. In…

Suvendrini Kakuchi TOKYO, May 19 2011 (IPS) – More than a hundred young nursing mothers living in Fukushima and nearby areas have signed up to get themselves checked for radiation contamination, but they would rather do it on their own, with no help from the Japanese government. A laboratory the women have selected will conduct…