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Friday, March 12, 2010   23:59 GMT    
Latest News
POLITICS-NIGERIA : In the Shadows of Men: Women’s Political Marginalisation
By Mustapha Muhammad
KANO, Mar 12 (IPS) - Ten years after Nigeria returned to civil rule women still play second fiddle in the male-dominated politics of Africa’s most populous nation, women politicians and activists say.
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HAITI: Caribbean Unites Behind Recovery Plans
By Peter Richards
ROSEAU, Dominica , Mar 12 (IPS) - As he travels back to his headquarters in Washington, World Bank president Robert Zoellick must be painfully aware that Caribbean Community (CARICOM) countries have very strong feelings on the redevelopment of Haiti following the Jan. 12 earthquake.
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BIODIVERSITY: Lucrative Shark Trade Under Scrutiny
By Matthew Berger
WASHINGTON, Mar 12 (IPS) - 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.
MORE >>

DEVELOPMENT-CAMEROON: Are Women the Magic Bullet for "Electoral Apathy"?
By Mohamadou Houmfa
YAOUNDE, Mar. 12 (IPS) - A support network for women's political participation, are challenging head-on what it calls "electoral apathy", after noting a growing trend in electoral abstention.
MORE >>

RIGHTS: Guatemala, El Salvador Ordered to Heed Rulings
By Edgardo Ayala
SAN SALVADOR, Mar 12 (IPS) - Guatemala and El Salvador have a terrible record in terms of compliance with the recommendations and sentences handed down by the inter-American human rights bodies on cases involving appalling abuses like forced disappearance, torture and massacres committed during the armed conflicts in the two Central American countries.
MORE >>

PHILIPPINES: Reproductive Health Tests Candidates’ Political Guts
By Kara Santos
MANILA, Mar 12 (IPS) - Filipino voters who have yet to make up their minds about their choice for their next president are being advised: look at each aspirant’s stance on reproductive health to help them gauge the candidate’s leadership mettle and political guts.
MORE >>

IRAQ: Women Miss Saddam
By Abdu Rahman and Dahr Jamail*
BAGHDAD, Mar 12 (IPS) - Under Saddam Hussein, women in government got a year's maternity leave; that is now cut to six months. Under the Personal Status Law in force since Jul. 14, 1958, when Iraqis overthrew the British-installed monarchy, Iraqi women had most of the rights that Western women do.
MORE >>

EGYPT: Population Growth Overtakes Literacy Rise
By Cam McGrath
LUXOR, Mar 12 (IPS) - Literacy programmes are teaching millions of Egyptians to read, but are struggling to keep up with the country's high population growth.
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MIDEAST: Building Settlements, Not Peace
By Jerrold Kessel and Pierre Klochendler
JERUSALEM, Mar 12 (IPS) - "The best laid-schemes o' mice an' men gang aft a-gley" (Scottish for 'going wrong').
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CHINA: Binge-drinking Culture Turning from Fun to Lethal
By Mitch Moxley
BEIJING, Mar 12 (IPS) - After Chen Lusheng, a police sergeant from the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen, died in December after an off-duty night of heavy drinking with local officials, his superiors tried to have him designated a "martyr" who "died in the line of duty," so that his family would receive greater compensation.
MORE >>

Global Affairs
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.
MORE >>
 		 
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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MDGs
DEVELOPMENT-CAMEROON: Are Women the Magic Bullet for "Electoral Apathy"?
By Mohamadou Houmfa
YAOUNDE - A support network for women's political participation, are challenging head-on what it calls "electoral apathy", after noting a growing trend in electoral abstention.
MORE >>
 		 
EGYPT: Population Growth Overtakes Literacy Rise
By Cam McGrath
LUXOR - Literacy programmes are teaching millions of Egyptians to read, but are struggling to keep up with the country's high population growth.
MORE >>
 		 
KENYA: Proposed Constitutional Amendment Sets Back Women’s Rights
By Susan Anyangu-Amu
NAIROBI - Lillian Mutuku, a 34-year-old mother of three, describes her home in Katine area, in Kenya’s Eastern province Tala, as a harsh place to live. The soil is poor, she says, the sun beats down mercilessly and vegetation is sparse.
MORE >>
 		 
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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EDUCATION-TANZANIA: Pregnant Teens Forced Out of School
By Arnaud Bébien
DAR-ES-SALAAM - Pregnancy is the leading cause of dropouts for school girls in Tanzania. And a national law forbidding young mothers to return to school after giving birth did not make it any easier for them to continue their education.
MORE >>
 		 
Environment
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.
MORE >>
 		 
INDONESIA: Waste Composting Project Blazes Cleaner Path
By Kanis Dursin
JAKARTA - Battling the pain from a boil on his left thigh, 45-year-old Inggit Tukino pulled his two-wheeled cart through the overcrowded alleys of a slum in Rawabebek, Penjaringan hamlet in here North Jakarta.
MORE >>
 		 
EDUCATION-URUGUAY: Gardens of Knowledge
By Silvana Silveira
MONTEVIDEO - "Nature is wise, and if we take the time to observe it, we can learn so much" is the underlying philosophy of a number of innovative programmes being carried out in Uruguayan schools that are using gardens as a teaching resource, explained Edith Moraes, director of the national Primary Education Board.
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TANZANIA: Weather Changes Turn Farming into Gamble with Nature
By Denis Gathanju
DAR-ES-SALAAM - Changes in weather patterns have turned agriculture into a gamble with nature for Tanzanian farmers. Prolonged droughts and floods have made the lives of small-scale farmers, who don’t have access to irrigation, extremely difficult.
MORE >>
 		 
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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Human Rights
POLITICS-NIGERIA : In the Shadows of Men: Women’s Political Marginalisation
By Mustapha Muhammad
KANO - Ten years after Nigeria returned to civil rule women still play second fiddle in the male-dominated politics of Africa’s most populous nation, women politicians and activists say.
MORE >>
 		 
DEVELOPMENT-CAMEROON: Are Women the Magic Bullet for "Electoral Apathy"?
By Mohamadou Houmfa
YAOUNDE - A support network for women's political participation, are challenging head-on what it calls "electoral apathy", after noting a growing trend in electoral abstention.
MORE >>
 		 
RIGHTS: Guatemala, El Salvador Ordered to Heed Rulings
By Edgardo Ayala
SAN SALVADOR - Guatemala and El Salvador have a terrible record in terms of compliance with the recommendations and sentences handed down by the inter-American human rights bodies on cases involving appalling abuses like forced disappearance, torture and massacres committed during the armed conflicts in the two Central American countries.
MORE >>
 		 
PHILIPPINES: Reproductive Health Tests Candidates’ Political Guts
By Kara Santos
MANILA - Filipino voters who have yet to make up their minds about their choice for their next president are being advised: look at each aspirant’s stance on reproductive health to help them gauge the candidate’s leadership mettle and political guts.
MORE >>
 		 
IRAQ: Women Miss Saddam
By Abdu Rahman and Dahr Jamail*
BAGHDAD - Under Saddam Hussein, women in government got a year's maternity leave; that is now cut to six months. Under the Personal Status Law in force since Jul. 14, 1958, when Iraqis overthrew the British-installed monarchy, Iraqi women had most of the rights that Western women do.
MORE >>
 		 
Health
PHILIPPINES: Reproductive Health Tests Candidates’ Political Guts
By Kara Santos
MANILA - Filipino voters who have yet to make up their minds about their choice for their next president are being advised: look at each aspirant’s stance on reproductive health to help them gauge the candidate’s leadership mettle and political guts.
MORE >>
 		 
CHINA: Binge-drinking Culture Turning from Fun to Lethal
By Mitch Moxley
BEIJING - After Chen Lusheng, a police sergeant from the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen, died in December after an off-duty night of heavy drinking with local officials, his superiors tried to have him designated a "martyr" who "died in the line of duty," so that his family would receive greater compensation.
MORE >>
 		 
INDONESIA: Waste Composting Project Blazes Cleaner Path
By Kanis Dursin
JAKARTA - Battling the pain from a boil on his left thigh, 45-year-old Inggit Tukino pulled his two-wheeled cart through the overcrowded alleys of a slum in Rawabebek, Penjaringan hamlet in here North Jakarta.
MORE >>
 		 
LATIN AMERICA: Abortion - Still Illegal, Still Killing, Despite Growing Awareness
By Estrella Gutiérrez
CARACAS - Although most of the governments in Latin America today are described as progressive, abortion is only legal in one country, while in five countries it is banned under all circumstances, even when the mother's life is at risk.
MORE >>
 		 
ENVIRONMENT-UGANDA: Landslides - Experts Warn Worst is Yet to Come
By Joshua Kyalimpa
KAMPALA - Fourteen-year-old Isaac Wadyegere of Bundesi village in Bududa district woke up to a rainy and chilly Monday morning and went to school as usual. But Mar. 1 was not a usual day in eastern Uganda.
MORE >>
 		 
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