There are an estimated 13,000 pieces of plastic litter afloat every single square kilometer of ocean. Credit: Bo Eide Snemann/CC-BY-2.0
ATHENS, Oct 10 2014 (IPS) – Imagine a black-footed albatross feeding its chick plastic pellets, a baby seal in the North Pole helplessly struggling with an open-ended plastic bag wrapped tight around its neck, or a fishing vessel stranded mid-sea, a length of discarded nylon net entangled in its propeller. Multiply these scenarios a thousand-fold, and you get a glimpse of the state of the world’s oceans.
With an average of estimated to be afloat every single square kilometer of ocean globally, and 6.4 million tonnes …
Elderly people exercising in a city square as part of the municipal programme Healthy Stations in public parks in Buenos Aires, where health controls are also offered for people over 60. Credit: Fabiana Frayssinet/IPS
BUENOS AIRES, Dec 9 2014 (IPS) – The eternally young Latin America is also ageing, due to the rise in life expectancy and the drop in birth rates a demographic revolution that poses new challenges in a region that has begun to move slowly away from its status as the most unequal part of the world.
The report by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), confirmed that this century there are fewer children per couple and more older adults, whi…
Farmers with the Landless Workers’ Movement (MST) protest the concentration of land ownership in Brazil, during a Feb. 21 demonstration in support of the occupation of part of the Agropecuaria Santa Mônica estate, 150 km from Brasilia. Credit: Courtesy of the MST
UNITED NATIONS, Mar 19 2015 (IPS) – The growing economic inequalities between rich and poor – and the lopsided concentration of wealth and power in the hands of the world’s one percent are undermining international efforts to fight global poverty, environmental degradation and social injustice, according to a civil society alliance.
Comprising ActionAid, Greenpeace, Oxfam and Civicus, the group of widel…
Experts have said for years that Kathmandu is an extremely high-risk city in the event of seismic activity, yet Nepal was caught off guard when a massive earthquake struck on Apr. 25, 2015. Credit: Amantha Perera/IPS
COLOMBO, May 8 2015 (IPS) – There has never been any doubt that Nepal is sitting on one of the most seismically active areas in South Asia. The fact that, when the big one struck, damages and deaths would be catastrophic has been known for years.
Indeed, when this correspondent visited Nepal several years ago, and found himself climbing up the narrow, winding stairwell of the Nepal Red Cross Society office in Kathmandu, a poster on one of the doors demanded …
An estimated 4.5 million Vietnamese people were potentially exposed to Agent Orange during the decade 1961-1972. Credit: naturalbornstupid/CC-BY-SA-2.0
WASHINGTON, Jun 29 2015 (IPS) – A key senator and a D.C.-based think tank are calling for Washington to step up its aid in cleaning up toxic herbicides sprayed by the United States in Vietnam during the war that ended 40 years ago.
Speaking last week at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a major think tank here, Vermont Senator Patrick Leahy, who has long led the efforts in the U.S. Congress to compensate Vietnamese war victims, called on Washington to do more, arguing that it will furthe…
Children residing at a Protection of Civilians (POC) site run by the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) perform at a special cultural event in Juba March 27, 2015. Credit: UN Photo/JC McIlwaine
UNITED NATIONS, Aug 20 2015 (IPS) – The rising death toll of civilians, specifically women and children, in ongoing military conflicts is generating strong messages of condemnation from international institutions and human rights organisations – with the United Na…
BULAWAYO, Zimbabwe, Dec 15 2015 (IPS) – Successive poor harvests have diminished Ndodana Makhalima s household food stocks and the family’s nutrition status.
A subsistence farmer in Lupane, about 110 kilometres north of Zimbabwe’s second city, Bulawayo, 56 year-old Makhalima has learnt to live with hunger on his door step.
Farmers will have limited access to climate smart agricultural knowledge and skills as cash strapped Zimbabwe cuts technical assistance from agricu…
Table tennis players train at Majd Sports. Majd Sports is a recreational centre catering for people with disabilities in Ramallah, occupied West Bank. Credit: Silvia Boarini/IPS
RAMALLAH, Occupied West Bank, Apr 28 2016 (IPS) – Despite formally adopting progressive laws, such as Law Number 4, and ratifying the UN Convention on the Rights of People with Disability, Palestinian authorities still struggle to get beyond rhetoric when it comes to supporting the 7 to 11 per cent of the population that is affected by disability.
As the ongoing Israeli military occupation of the West Bank and Gaza continues to block the development of the quasi-Palestinian state, the a…
is the Regional Director of the South East Asia Region of WHO.
NEW YORK, Jun 7 2016 (IPS) – Thailand has provided the world with an important milestone towards the global goal of ending pediatric AIDS. This week, the World Health Organization is formally declaring that Thailand has officially eliminated new HIV infections among children.
Whereas in 2000 an estimated 1000 children in Thailand were newly infected with HIV, in 2015 just – 85 children were infected with the disease. This very low level of new infection among children is comparable to the results achieved in North America and Western Europe, where mother-to-child HIV transmission is extremely rare.
Last year, Cuba became the first country to be officially acknowledged as having eliminated mother-to-c…
Two Mexican teenage girls at their school. Investing in education for teenage girls in Latin America is regarded as the way forward for them to become future drivers of sustainable develpment in their societies. Credit: UNFPA LAC
CARACAS, Jul 11 2016 (IPS) – Latin America’s teenage girls are a crucial force for change and for promoting sustainable development, if the region invests in their rights and the correction of unequal opportunities, acc…