Emad Mekay
WASHINGTON, Jul 31 2006 (IPS) – Critics of a controversial pipeline in the Amazon rainforest that has ruptured five times since its inception in 2004 are dismayed that the main public funder of the project is on the verge of giving more money for its second phase despite earlier promises to await the results of audits probing the pipeline s persistent leaks.
Last week, the Washington-based Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) signed a mandate letter with companies of the Peru Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) pipeline that transports gas from the highly controversial Camisea field.
The letter kick-starts the due diligence process, a mechanism that often signals the imminent release of further loans.
The companies, led by Texas-based Hunt, SK Corporation …
Ali al-Fadhily*
BAGHDAD, Jun 1 2007 (IPS) – Reports of the poor health among high-ranking Iraqi politicians are being seen as symbolic of the popular mood here about the U.S.-backed government.
In late February, Iraqi President Jalal Talabani was flown to neighbouring Jordan for medical treatment amid conflicting reports about his health. Sources in Amman and from Talabani s office in Baghdad told reporters that the 73-year-old had suffered a stroke, but in a televised interview his son said that Talabani was suffering from fatigue or exhaustion.
Meanwhile, Shi ite leader Abdul Azizi al-Hakim, leader of Iraq s largest Shia party, recently arrived in Iran for treatment for lung cancer after being diagnosed at a hospital in the southern U.S. state of Texas.
This…
Interview with Thoraya Ahmed Obaid, UNFPA
LONDON, Oct 22 2007 (IPS) – The Women Deliver conference held in London last week has reminded a lot of people in the world of healthcare how much more they need to deliver to make pregnancy and childbirth safer for women.
Thoraya Obaid Credit:
More than 1,800 delegates from 109 countries, among them 70 ministers and parliamentarians, met in London Oct. 18-20 to work out new ways of improving maternal health. Thoraya Ahmed Obaid, executive director of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) since January 2001, will inevitably be a leading figure in taking the new m…
Dahr Jamail and Ahmed Ali*
BAQUBA, Mar 10 2008 (IPS) – Iraq #39s children have been more gravely affected by the U.S. occupation than any other segment of the population.
The United Nations estimated that half a million Iraqi children died during more than 12 years of economic sanctions that preceded the U.S. invasion of March 2003, primarily as a result of malnutrition and disease.
But childhood malnutrition in Iraq has increased 9 percent since then, according to an Oxfam International report released last July.
A report from the non-governmental relief organisation Save the Children shows Iraq continues to have the highest mortality for children under five. Since the first Gulf War, this has increased 150 percent. It is estimated that one in eight children …
Ansel Herz
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Jan 17 2010 (IPS) – Millions of dollars in aid are pouring into Haiti. Another head of state visits each day. The misery in Port-Au-Prince dominates the news nearly a week after the 7.0 earthquake struck the heart of this island country.
Children in Cité Soleil, Haiti, play with a kite made from a plastic bag among the shanty town s rubble. Credit: UN Photo/Logan Ab…
Helda Martínez
BOGOTA, Apr 7 2011 (IPS) – The announcement of progress towards making synthetic vaccines against 517 infectious diseases, and the award of an international prize for his work have stirred up lively controversy around Colombian pathologist Manuel Elkin Patarroyo, a malaria vaccine pioneer.
Manuel Elkin Patarroyo Credit: Manuel Elkin Patarroyo
While the scientific community complains that the media are making a big fuss over the announcement before the effectiveness of the vaccines has been confirmed, lawsuits have been brought about alleged an…
WASHINGTON, Jul 15 2014 (IPS) – Even as aid workers are warning that children in South Sudan are falling victim to mass malnutrition, international agencies are said to be missing their fundraising goals to avert a looming famine in the country.
On Monday, Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), the international medical relief organisation, reported that nearly three-quarters of the more than 18,000 patients admitted to the agency’s feeding programmes in South Sudan have been children. South Sudan has experienced mounting civil violence in recent months, which humanitarian groups warn has directly impacted farmers’ ability to plant and grow crops.
