Israeli sniper using live ammunition – Ruger rifle with 0.22 mm calibre bullets – against Palestinian stone throwers. Credit: Mel Frykberg/IPS RAMALLAH, West Bank, Mar 27 2015 (IPS) – A Palestinian youth lost his fight for life this week after lying critically injured in Ramallah Hospital for days after Israeli soldiers used live ammunition as…

IPS correspondent Neena Bhandari interviews PETER O’NEILL, Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea An estimated 36 percent of Papua New Guinea’s eight million people are currently living on less than 1.25 dollars a day. Credit: Catherine Wilson/IPS SYDNEY, May 25 2015 (IPS) – As Papua New Guinea celebrates 40 years of independence, 2015 marks a…

Latin America’s population is ageing, which poses social and economic challenges, for which there is a new Convention. In the photo, older adults gathered in the town of Cuautitlán-Izcalli, to the north of the Mexican capital, to receive information about economic support for this segment of the population. Credit: Courtesy of the city government of…

José Graziano da Silva, Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO). ROME, Sep 23 2015 (IPS) – The next 15 years will be decisive for our planet’s future. During this period we will face some of the 21st Century’s greatest challenges, amidst an ongoing and profound transition in the global economy. José Graziano da…

Hordes of ordinary Zimbabweans are turning to rabbit farming, which has continued to transform many lives economically. Pictured here are some of Tichaona Muzariri’s rabbits, a villager from Chivhu, 143 kilometers south of Harare, the Zimbabwean capital. Credit: Jeffrey Moyo/IPS CHIVHU, Zimbabwe, Feb 2 2016 (IPS) – Tichaona Muzariri, 44, a villager based at Range…

Dhaka maternity hospitals encourage exclusive breastfeeding. Credit: Sujan-map/IPS UNITED NATIONS, May 11 2016 (IPS) – Despite its many lifesaving benefits breastfeeding still struggles to compete with the marketing used by the multi-billion dollar baby formula industry, according to a new report published this week. “Aggressive and inappropriate marketing of breast-milk substitutes, and other food products that compete with…

Assistive products like wheelchairs can help people with disabilities participate more fully. Credit: Jeffrey Moyo/IPS. UNITED NATIONS, Jun 15 2016 (IPS) – Wheelchairs, hearing aids, white canes and braille typewriters are just some of the products that help people with disabilities to participate fully in everyday life. Yet for many people with disabilities in developing countries…

Jul 29 2016 – Hunger still stalks many of our countrymen. It is particularly destructive with our children who, because of poverty, do not get enough to eat, become vulnerable to disease and exploitation and end up unhealthy, uneducated and unhappy. Uneducated because the need to eat superimposes itself over everything, so that all their…

Eve Crowley is acting regional representative of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) for Latin America and the Caribbean. The change in the eating habits in Latin America and the Caribbean has led to an increase in overweight and obesity in the region. Credit: Eduardo Bermúdez / FAORLC SANTIAGO, Jan 23 2017 (IPS) –…

Water delivery in Yemen. Credit: UN photo UNITED NATIONS, Apr 20 2017 (IPS) – Persistent attacks on health care in Yemen is severely impacting children’s well-being, civil society detailed at the launch of a report. In the , Watchlist on Children and Armed Conflict, in collaboration with Save the Children, found a series of systematic…