Kazakhstan Restricts Faith in the Name of Tackling Extremism
Religious life in Kazakhstan features a glaring dichotomy these days. Officials in Astana tout the country as a bastion of toleration, yet they are making it harder for those practicing what are deemed...
View ArticleBolivian Sugar Industry Recovers and Seeks Markets
Bolivia’s sugar mills are once again operating at full capacity, with producers flooding the domestic market and desperate to obtain permits to export a surplus of 138,000 tons to Chile, Colombia, Peru...
View ArticleSex Education Is Also a Right
Learning about respect in a relationship, sexual orientation, sexuality, gender equality and family planning forms part of the right to sex education that is still not enjoyed by all children and...
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Q&A: A Portrait of the Superstars of Celebrity Activism
Start a global debate about the underlying reasons why poverty exists – and do it through cinema. Courtesy of Bosse Lindquist The ambitious new initiative “Why Poverty” brings together eight...
View ArticleSyrian Opposition Rebrands as Rebels Advance
As Syrian rebels launched a new attack in Damascus, opposition leaders announced the creation of the National Coalition of Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces, an umbrella group designed to be...
View ArticleCanada Eyes African Resources amid Shrinking Foreign Aid
With an initial focus on oil-producing Nigeria and mineral-rich Ghana, Ottawa is bolstering its trade strategy in Africa, but some within the international development and economic communities have...
View ArticleTrinidad’s Broadcasters Rebel over Govt Airtime Demands
Nearly three years after it came to power promising to uphold press freedom, Trinidad and Tobago’s coalition government is under fire for demanding free airtime from local broadcasters. Both national...
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Latin American Middle Class Booming but Fragile
New data from the World Bank shows that the middle class in Latin America has expanded substantially, growing by 50 percent over the past 10 years despite decades of sluggish poverty reduction....
View ArticleFaces of the Crisis in a Protesting Europe*
Out-of-work engineers, family businesses that are falling apart, people working in precarious conditions in an ailing labour market – it’s a description of Spain, but it could just as easily be...
View ArticleIsrael Ranked as World’s Most Militarised Nation
Israel tops the list of the world’s most militarised nations, according to the latest Global Militarisation Index released Tuesday by the Bonn International Centre for Conversion (BICC). At number 34,...
View ArticleNanotechnology Could Lighten Venezuela’s Oil Footprint
Venezuela is studying the use of nanotechnology as a means of reducing emissions of greenhouse gases caused by the oil industry. Nanotechnology operates at the sub-microscopic scale: a nanometre is a...
View ArticleNo Contraceptives Means More Illegal Abortions in Uganda
Every day at least five women are brought to the gynaecological ward of Uganda’s Mulago National Referral Hospital in Kampala for treatment for complications caused by crude attempts to terminate their...
View ArticleLead Funder on AIDS, Malaria, TB Gets a Reboot
After weathering the departure of its executive director amidst a misallocation scandal earlier this year, the world’s largest funder of programmes to address HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria is...
View ArticleRacism Is Bad for Health
If a black woman and a white woman both need emergency obstetric care, a Brazilian doctor will assist the white woman because of the stereotype that black women are better at handling pain and are used...
View ArticleSoup Kitchens Overwhelmed in Crisis-Ridden Spain
A huge pot of rice steams on the stove at the soup kitchen run by Emaús in the municipality of Torremolinos, on the outskirts of this southern Spanish city. This morning, like every other, Pepi,...
View ArticleUnsafe Abortions Threaten Thousands in Eastern Europe
Pressure from the Catholic Church, social stigma, a lack of information about sexuality and reproductive health and limited access to reproductive healthcare services are putting the lives of hundreds...
View ArticleHamas Military Chief Killed in Israeli Attack
A top Hamas commander was among seven people killed in more than 20 Israeli air strikes on the Gaza Strip, as Israel began an operation targeting armed groups. Ahmad Jabari, the operational commander...
View ArticleFamily Planning Skips Millions in Pakistan
Thirty-year-old Shahida Saleem, who was not educated past the tenth grade, is a mother of two, living with her family in Karachi. Six months ago she suffered a miscarriage and her doctor, concerned...
View ArticleFamily Planning Falters Despite Treaty Commitments
Since the 1966 International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the United Nations has consistently maintained that family planning is a basic human right to be exercised by all – not...
View ArticleSome U.S. Farmworkers Face “Inhuman Conditions”
A widely respected advocate for U.S. farmworker rights received a prestigious award on Capitol Hill here Wednesday, using the occasion to highlight pending state legislation that could significantly...
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