Kaci Racelma
ALGIERS, Jan 5 2006 (IPS) – Coverage of AIDS in Africa typically focuses on the dire situation in countries south of the Sahara, which are home to almost two thirds of people infected with HIV globally, according to the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS).
But what of the countries that lie further north and along the Mediterranean? In the case of one of these nations, Algeria, concern about the pandemic is mounting even though statistics suggest little cause for alarm at first glance.
Figures posted on the UNAIDS website from the end of 2003 put adult HIV prevalence in Algeria at less than one percent 0.1 percent, to be exact. According to data from the Ministry of Health, Population and Hospital Reform, the number of HIV-positive people …
Darío Montero* – Tierramérica
MONTEVIDEO, Feb 15 2006 (IPS) – The frequent antagonism between protecting the environment and creating new jobs is clearly evident in the construction of two pulp mills on the Uruguayan side of the river that creates the border with Argentina. In addition to threatening bilateral relations between the two countries, the projects pit environmentalists against labour unions.
The mills, being built along the Uruguay River by Spain s ENCE and Finland s Botnia companies, and slated to begin operations in 2007, are fueling hopes for more jobs in the area, but are also stirring up fears of future damage to natural habitat and harm to human health.
Truckers, technicians and hundreds of metal and constructions workers who stand to benefit from …
Diego Cevallos
MEXICO CITY, Mar 16 2006 (IPS) – An average of 4,500 children under the age of five die every day worldwide from lack of access to clean drinking water and basic sanitation. To talk about this appalling situation, 100 children and teenagers from 30 countries have come to Mexico to share their experiences and take part in the search for solutions.
The Children s World Water Forum kicked off Thursday in the Mexican capital. The young participants, who are involved in water and hygiene projects in their schools and communities, will debate water topics and have the chance to express their points of view to several government ministers.
They will listen to us, because children are most heavily affected by the water crisis, and if we don t do something now,…
Lisa Söderlindh
UNITED NATIONS, Apr 18 2006 (IPS) – A quarter century into the HIV/AIDS pandemic, researchers fear that a lack of preparedness for large-scale social changes, driven by factors like armed conflict and climate change, could lead to explosive new outbreaks affecting millions of people.
Since cases of a severe pneumonia affecting gay men were described for the first time in a U.S. public health report in June 1981, more than 65 million people have become infected with HIV and 25 million have died, according to the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), which estimates the current number of people living with HIV at 37 to 45 million.
We should not accept living with this epidemic at the level it has reached, Paul DeLay, director of monitori…
SYDNEY, May 22 2006 (IPS) – Revelations of horrific levels of sexual abuse and violence suffered by women and children in Australia s aboriginal communities have surfaced, even as the fifth session of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII) is underway in New York.
A leaked confidential briefing paper by Nanette Rogers, government prosecutor in the Northern Territory, exposes how indigenous culture and close-knit kinship ties have helped create a blanket of silence over rampant violence against women and children.
But activists and people in authority are also blaming government inaction and neglect for a tragedy that has its roots in racist subjugation by European colonisers. Disruptive policies have included forcible separation of tens of thousand…
Moyiga Nduru
JOHANNESBURG, Jun 23 2006 (IPS) – South Africa is phasing out ageing and ill-maintained minibus taxis to pave the way for new, and hopefully safer, vehicles. Minibuses are a common means of transport in the country, where they serve between seven and nine million passengers a day, according to the Department of Transport.
Under our plan, 10,000 taxis will be scrapped by December 2006, Collin Msibi, a spokesman for the department, told IPS.
In all, 140,000 minibuses are to be taken off the roads within seven years, and replaced at an estimated cost of just over a billion dollars. The new vehicles will come in three sizes, with carrying capacities of nine, 17 and 35 passengers respectively according to transport minister Jeff Radebe.
We are on cou…
Adrián Reyes
MEXICO CITY, Aug 8 2006 (IPS) – Mexico has the highest proportion of people considered overweight or obese 20 percent of children and 70 percent of adults in the world, surpassed only by the United States.
We have to leave behind the idea that a chubby child is a healthy child, Gisela Anaya, with the non-governmental Mexican Diabetes Federation, told IPS.
Emilio Fernández, head of the independent Platícame (Talk to Me) Foundation of Children and Adults with Diabetes, told IPS that the weight gain among the population is the result of the drastic drop in consumption of fruit and vegetables over the last five years and the rise in consumption of junk food and fast food rich in carbohydrates and sugars.
Obesity is one of the factors that predisp…
Marwaan Macan-Markar
BANGKOK, Sep 9 2006 (IPS) – To be a health worker along Burma s eastern borders, home to the Karen and Karenni ethnic communities, is to court death, injury or imprisonment, say doctors working in the area.
Even midwives have not been spared. One in her mid-50s was arrested and tortured, they add.
Such abuse by Burma s military regime on health workers are only part of a grim picture in the border areas that have been laid waste by the junta s policy of crippling the health and food distribution systems where the ethnic minorities live.
This continuing abuse has created a humanitarian crisis that places the Karen and Karenni victims on par with, or even worse than, victims in war-ravaged African countries like Rwanda, Somalia and Sierra Le…
กรุงเทพฯ, ประเทศไทย (วันที่ 8 ตุลาคม พ.ศ. 2567) – เน็ตมาร์เบิ้ล ผู้พัฒนาและผู้เผยแพร่เกมมือถือคุณภาพสูงชั้นนำ ได้ปล่อยอัปเดตใหม่สำหรับเกม Idle RPG อย่าง The Seven Deadly Sins: IDLE Adventure ! ผู้เล่นสามารถสัมผัสความเพลิดเพลินไปกับอัศวินใหม่, กิจกรรมใหม่ในเวลาจำกัด, และอัปเดตคอนเทนต์ใหม่ได้แล้ววันนี…
เมื่อวันที่ 26 มีการเปิดเผยว่าเกม ‘Ragnarok: Monster World’ แนว RPG Web3 ที่บริษัทเกมโกลบอล Gravity พัฒนาร่วมกับบริษัทผู้เชี่ยวชาญด้านบล็อกเชนอย่าง Zero X And (0x&) ได้เข้าร่วมRonin Network เตรียมเปิดให้บริการในประเทศไทยครึ่งปีหลัง 2024 นี้
Ragnarok: Monster World เป็นเกมที่นำมอนสเตอร์จาก Ragnarok มาพัฒนาเป็นเกมแนว RPG …