Medical services are increasingly difficult to provide in Syria. Above, a field hospital. Credit: FreedomHouse/CC by 2.0 DAMASCUS, Jun 5 2013 (IPS) – It was nine in the morning when the shell landed in front of nine-year-old Hella al-Abtah s…
Women farmers are taking the lead in managing leasehold forestry programmes in rural Nepal. Credit: Naresh Newar/IPS JHIRUBAS, Nepal, Jun 19 2013 (IPS) – Nearly 300 km from Nepal’s teeming capital, Kathmandu, in a small village dug into the steep…
UNITED NATIONS, Aug 9 2013 (IPS) – When the U.N. Population Fund (UNFPA) participates in a regional review conference in the Uruguayan capital of Montevideo next week, it will take stock of the successes and failures of a wide range…
The MUOS antennas in the cork forest in Niscemi. Credit: Courtesy of Fabio D’Alessandro LUCCA, Italy, Oct 15 2013 (IPS) – Niscemi, with its 30,000 local residents and its white houses, is a typical southern Sicilian town. But it stands…
The global drawdown in the use of leaded fuel has resulted in benefits of some 2.5 trillion dollars a year. Credit: Bigstock WASHINGTON, Apr 22 2014 (IPS) – Consumer advocates, public health workers and environmental groups here are calling on…
During shortages of antiretrovirals due to strikes by health staff, Lucia Wakonyo resorted to self-medication. Credit: Miriam Gathigah/IPS NAIROBI, Jan 29 2014 (IPS) – In early January 2008, during the violence that rocked Kenya after disputed general elections, a man…
The celebrations over food aid at Yarmouk camp in Damascus were short-lived. Credit: Niraz Saeed DAMASCUS, Mar 29 2014 (IPS) – For just that moment, the refugees in Yarmouk camp in Damascus made news. After months of facing starvation and…
Uganda’s parliament has passed controversial legislation that criminalises the “wilful and intentional” transmission of HIV. Activists have called the HIV Prevention and Management Bill “giant leap backwards in the global struggle against HIV” Credit: Amy Fallon/IPS KAMPALA, May 15 2014…
This is part of a series of special stories on world population and challenges to the Sustainable Development Goals on the occasion of World Population Day on July 11. Girls attend school in South Africa. Healthy, educated young people can…
The budgets of many African countries reflect greater interest in arms deals than in managing the deadly HIV epidemic. Credit: Thomas Martinez/IPS JOHANNESBURG/NEW YORK, Aug 13 2014 (IPS) – They say there is a war on and its target is…