HEALTH: U.S. AIDS Fund Flat-Lining, Groups Complain
By Sananda Sahoo
WASHINGTON - The debate between those who favour investment in AIDS treatment and those who favour investment in its prevention came to the forefront Thursday at a U.S House of Representatives hearing on U.S. investments in HIV/AIDS in Africa.
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RIGHTS: Gender Confab Marked by Political Uncertainties
By Thalif Deen and Anna Shen*
UNITED NATIONS - When a two-week meeting on gender empowerment concluded at U.N. headquarters Friday, there were several lingering questions crying out for answers.
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BIODIVERSITY: Lucrative Shark Trade Under Scrutiny
By Matthew Berger
WASHINGTON - As climate change transforms the acidity and oxygen levels of the world's waters with devastating effects for some marine species, others are facing an even more immediate threat from human consumption.
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RIGHTS: U.S. Concerned Over Curbs on NGOs, Press, Internet
By Jim Lobe*
WASHINGTON - Releasing its annual report on the state of human rights around the world, the U.S. State Department Thursday said it was increasingly concerned about curbs imposed by foreign governments on civil society groups, the press, and Internet use.
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POLITICS: Sri Lanka Garners Support Against U.N. Probe
By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS - Sri Lanka, which won a grueling decades-long battle against one of the world's most ferocious terrorist organisations last May, has scored a diplomatic victory in its ongoing war of words with the United Nations.
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EGYPT: U.N. Slams Abuse of Emergency Law
By William Fisher
NEW YORK - Despite diplomatic maneuvering designed to block any review of its human rights record, a United Nations special rapporteur has told the U.N. Human Rights Council that proposed changes in Egypt's constitution "would create a permanent legal state of emergency".
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Q&A: Equality Is Feminism
By Sabina Zaccaro interviews Nobel Peace Laureate SHIRIN EBADI*
UNITED NATIONS - "I think that Islam has been misinterpreted. No Islamic law says violate women's rights and repress women," says Nobel Peace Prize laureate Shirin Ebadi. "Democracy, human rights and women leadership are absolutely not hostile to the Islamic doctrine." And women in Iran are well aware of that, she says.
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RIGHTS: Africa's Success Stories in Gender Empowerment
By Thalif Deen*
UNITED NATIONS - Whenever gender empowerment is a vibrant topic of discussion internationally, some of the countries in Europe, Asia and Latin America are invariably singled out for their success stories in politics, education, health care or civil liberties even as Africa is mostly left out of political reckoning - and wrongly so.
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ASIA: Religious Advocates Heed the Call of New Media
By Lynette Lee Corporal - Asia Media Forum
BANGKOK - Not even religious advocates and leaders and can say no to the power of online media, whose call they are heeding in order to spread various messages of spirituality.
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FINANCE: Self-Policing of Extractive Industries a "Dismal" Failure
By Charles Fromm
WASHINGTON - An international initiative that seeks to reform how governments profit from their natural resources should not reduce its existing standards of membership solely because candidate countries have been reluctant or incapable of meeting them, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said on Tuesday.
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