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Marwaan Macan-Markar BANGKOK, Feb 25 2011 (IPS) – Outdated laws that treat same-sex relations as a crime in a third of Asia-Pacific countries fuel fresh HIV infections, especially among men who have sex with men (MSM),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…
Poindexter Sama and Jessica McDiarmid FREETOWN, Jun 16 2011 (IPS) – Bubble-wrapped pills are scattered across the crude table in a busy market beside crumpled boxes of lubricant, paracetamol and anti-fungal powder. Regulators say many of the drugs sold on the informal markets in Sierra Leone are fake or substandard, posing a huge risk to…
Jillian Kestler-D’Amours JAFFA, Jul 2 2011 (IPS) – Medication and pillboxes fill two white bookcases, lining the wall behind a volunteer Israeli doctor. He talks to a patient in Hebrew about the man s medical condition, as another man is examined behind a curtain that divides the small office. In the next room, at least…
Sudeshna Sarkar KATHMANDU, Aug 9 2011 (IPS) – When Binita Lamichhane got married she was troubled by her husband s bloodshot eyes. What happened to your eyes? the 18-year-old bride asked. Smoke, came the answer. Women in Nepal s plains make improved cooking stoves as a means of livelihood. Credit: Hari Gopal Gorkhali/IPS Nakul Lamichhane,…
Sana Altaf SRINAGAR, Sep 13 2011 (IPS) – When the sole Community Care Centre in Jammu and Kashmir providing medical and psychosocial services to people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) closed down for lack of patients it was a sure sign that the north Indian state had beaten back dire forecasts. There were few people coming…