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Thursday, March 11, 2010 21:43 GMT

Latest News

CHILE: Aftershocks Rock Inaugural Ceremony

By Daniela Estrada
SANTIAGO, Mar 11 (IPS) - While Chile's new rightwing President Sebastián Piñera, who announced that he would lead "a government of reconstruction," was being sworn in Thursday, the earthquake-ravaged country was shaken by major aftershocks.
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KENYA: Proposed Constitutional Amendment Sets Back Women’s Rights
By Susan Anyangu-Amu
NAIROBI, Mar 11 (IPS) - 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.
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EGYPT: U.N. Slams Abuse of Emergency Law
By William Fisher
NEW YORK, Mar 11 (IPS) - 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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SOUTH AFRICA: Gender Loses Out in Basic Education Crisis
By Ann Hellman
CAPE TOWN, Mar 11 (IPS) - With the 15th-year review of the 1995 Beijing World Conference on Women taking place at the ongoing Commission on the Status of Women in New York, South African teachers and education experts say they fear that a special focus on the advancement of girls is getting lost amidst the growing levels of poverty in the country.
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Q&A: Equality Is Feminism
By Sabina Zaccaro interviews Nobel Peace Laureate SHIRIN EBADI*
UNITED NATIONS, Mar 11 (IPS/TerraViva) - "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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SOMALIA: U.S. Should Accept Islamist Authority, Report Says
By Charles Fromm and Mohammed A. Salih
WASHINGTON, Mar 11 (IPS) - The United States should accept an "Islamist authority" in Somalia as part of a "constructive disengagement" strategy for the war-torn country, according to a new report released here by the influential Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) on Wednesday.
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BURMA: Despite Loss at Oscars, Film A Testament to Courage
By Marwaan Macan-Markar
BANGKOK, Mar 11 (IPS) - It may have not won an Oscar, but its having been a final contender for the prestigious statue at the U.S. Academy Awards on Mar. 7 has taken ‘Burma VJ’ to heights never achieved by previous films depicting the oppression and courage in military-ruled Burma.
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ECUADOR: Native Leaders Call for Anti-Government Protests
By Gonzalo Ortiz
QUITO, Mar 11 (IPS) - "This is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning." The words of British Prime Minister Winston Churchill after the 1942 defeat of Germany's forces in Africa are an apt description of the situation between the government of Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa and the powerful Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (CONAIE).
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THAILAND: Media Caught in Red-or-Yellow Divide Too
By Lynette Lee Corporal - Asia Media Forum
BANGKOK, Mar 11 (IPS) - Anyone who is still trying to look for neutrality or balance in the Thai media in these days of political ferment, ahead of large anti-government protests expected in the capital, has a pretty tough job.
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INDONESIA: Waste Composting Project Blazes Cleaner Path
By Kanis Dursin
JAKARTA, Mar 11 (IPS) - 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.
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Global Affairs

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".
MORE >>

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.
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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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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MDGs

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 >>

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.
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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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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.
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Environment

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 >>

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.
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RIGHTS: "Famine Marriages" Just One Byproduct of Climate Change
By Thalif Deen*
UNITED NATIONS - The negative fallout from climate change is having a devastatingly lopsided impact on women compared to men, from higher death rates during natural disasters to heavier household and care burdens.
MORE >>

Human Rights

CHILE: Aftershocks Rock Inaugural Ceremony

By Daniela Estrada
SANTIAGO - While Chile's new rightwing President Sebastián Piñera, who announced that he would lead "a government of reconstruction," was being sworn in Thursday, the earthquake-ravaged country was shaken by major aftershocks.
MORE >>

SOUTH AFRICA: Gender Loses Out in Basic Education Crisis
By Ann Hellman
CAPE TOWN - With the 15th-year review of the 1995 Beijing World Conference on Women taking place at the ongoing Commission on the Status of Women in New York, South African teachers and education experts say they fear that a special focus on the advancement of girls is getting lost amidst the growing levels of poverty in the country.
MORE >>

Health

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.
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HEALTH-SOUTH AFRICA: More Funds Needed for HIV Prevention and Treatment
By Kristin Palitza
CAPE TOWN - Decreasing or levelling HIV funding will destabilise developing countries’ health systems, a group of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) warned. They demand that governments worldwide own up to their promise of achieving universal access to HIV treatment.
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HEALTH-SOUTH AFRICA: Five Years to Children Born Free of HIV
By Marshall Patsanza
JOHANNESBURG - A world where all children are born free of HIV infection is possible in only five years if donors continue to fund global efforts to combat the virus.
MORE >>