Bumblebee pollinating Aquilegia vulgaris. Credit: Roo72/cc by 3.0
WASHINGTON, May 3 2013 (IPS) – A major study by the U.S. government’s environment and agriculture agencies has suggested a strong link between the use of certain pesticides and the widespread deaths that have afflicted honey bee populations around the world in recent years.
Still, the , released Thursday, does not suggest limiting the use of these pesticides, nor does it recommend immediate action to impose a temporary ban, as was announced this week in a landmark decision by the European Union. Rather, the report offers technical tweaks while urging additional research on the…
Young Bangladeshi women raise their fists at a protest in Shahbagh. Credit: Kajal Hazra/IPS
KUALA LUMPUR, May 29 2013 (IPS) – “If I am thirsty and want a bottle of Coca-Cola I can get it, no matter where in the world I am. Why can’t I get contraceptives or sexual heathcare?” asked Carlos Jimmy Macazana Quispe, a youth representative from Peru currently in Kuala Lumpur for the third edition of the Women Deliver global conference on the health and well-being of women and girls.
A member of the Lima-based (INPPARES), a non-profit organisation that helps young Peruvians learn about sexual and reproductive rights, Quispe was expressing frustration th…
KIEV, Jun 28 2013 (IPS) – The Ukraine is facing a “real threat” of a return of polio as well as outbreaks of other serious diseases such as mumps, rubella and measles because of a combination of state inefficiency and public mistrust of vaccinations, health experts have said.
The country has one of the lowest vaccine coverage rates in Europe, especially among children, and cases of some preventable diseases have soared in recent years.
International health officials say they are working with the Ukrainian authorities to improve immunisation rates, but fear that there could be major disease outbreaks in the future and lives endangered unless progress is made on raising vaccination rates.
“There is a very real risk that polio could return and that there could…
MONTEVIDEO, Aug 16 2013 (IPS) – Representatives of 38 countries of Latin America and the Caribbean meeting this week in the Uruguayan capital urged governments in the region to consider modifying their laws on abortion, which are among the most restrictive in the world.
The calls on “States to consider amending their laws, regulations, strategies and public policies relating to the voluntary termination of pregnancy in order to protect the lives and health of women and adolescent girls, to improve their quality of life and to reduce the number of abortions”.
The document was adopted at the end of the first session of the Regional Conference on Population and Development in Latin America and the Caribbean, which ran Monday through Thursday.
Daptnhe Cuevas, of…
Volunteers find ways to raise awareness about suicides. Credit: Sujoy Dhar/IPS
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, India , Oct 30 2013 (IPS) – When Sarath, 29, a security staffer with a private firm in Kattakada town in India’s southern Kerala state hanged himself at his office premises, his death became a grim reminder of what statistics in the country have been showing for some time now: more and more young Indian men are succumbing to socio-economic pressures and are committing suicide.
Sarath had been depressed for a while, everyone around him said, allegedly over debt arising from a bank loan.
According to statistics released earlier this year by the Nati…
A group of drug users in a Dhaka suburb. Credit: Shafiqul Alam Kiron, Map/IPS
UNITED NATIONS, Dec 7 2013 (IPS) – An internal United Nations draft document leaked last weekend has offered outsiders a rare look at longstanding disagreements between member states over the course of U.N. drug policy.
The document, first publicised by the Guardian and obtained by IPS, contains over 100 specific policy recommendations and proposals from member states, many at odds with the status quo on illicit drug eradication and prohibition.“Countries feel real pain. But they are being told they should strengthen interdiction.” — Guatemala’s U.N. Ambassador Gert Rosenthal
UNITED NATIONS, Feb 13 2014 (IPS) – Last week, I had the privilege of attending the Delhi Sustainable Development Summit, an annual event that deals with a subject that is very close to my heart. The summit gathered together amazing people: Nobel Prize winners, thought leaders, heads of state, corporate innovators, and academicians to deal with the paramount challenges of the 21st Century all focused on three pressing dimensions of sustainability: food, water and energy.
Credit: Todd France Photography, 2012
Clearly these are critical to the future of humanity. Right now, about one in eight of the human beings with whom we share …
This story is part one of a three-part series on how social and economic inequalities impact cancer treatment. The second and third installments will take a closer look at how low- and middle-income countries in the Middle East and Latin America are coping with their cancer burdens and employing multiple strategies to stem the epidemic.
A patient being treated at the Regional Cancer Centre in Thiruvananthapuram, India. Credit: K.S. Harikrishnan/IPS
UNITED NATIONS, Apr 9 2014 (IPS) – Few people in the world can claim to be untouched by cancer. If not personally battling it in one form or another, millions are at this very moment sitting beside loved ones fighting for th…
Nasreen Jehan, a high school student in eastern India, studies a leaflet on menstrual hygiene. Credit: Stella Paul/IPS
BETTIAH, India, May 28 2014 (IPS) – Fifteen-year-old Nasreen Jehan, a student in the eastern Indian state of Bihar, proudly flaunts a yellow and red beaded bracelet encircling her wrist. This humble accessory, she tells IPS, is her most treasured possession.
“It helps me keep track of my menstrual calendar,” says the 9th-grader, who attends a government-run, all-girls school in a town called Bettiah. “Also, it helps me talk about menstruation with my friends.”
Of the 24 small beads that comprise the delicate adornment, six are …
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.
Most South Asian nations struggle with the twin problems of early marriage and teenage pregnancy, making it crucial to tackle both simultaneously, experts say. Credit: Zofeen Ebrahim/IPS
KARACHI, Pakistan, Jul 11 2014 (IPS) – If 22-year-old Rashda Naureen could go back six years in time, she would never have agreed to get married at the tender age of 16.
Looking back, I know I was not ready for marriage,” she told IPS. “How could I have been, being merely a child myself?”
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