Emad Mekay

CAIRO, Nov 29 2006 (IPS) – Om Samar didn t believe the news. Muslim scholars banning (female) circumcision? This must be a joke, she said.
Samar, a mother of four who works as a maid cleaning apartments and houses for a daily rate, was planning to circumcise her five-year-old daughter, Shaimaa, when she turns eight or nine.

But an international conference on female circumcision funded by the German government and sponsored by top Islamic scholars here last week brought tidings she didn t expect.

Eliminating the Violation of Women s Bodies , as the conference was publicised in Arabic, was attended by some of Islam s most senior and influential scholars. Most of them spoke against the common practice.

The main message was that female genital …

Marwaan Macan-Markar

BANGKOK, Jan 11 2007 (IPS) – Vietnam s glory as star performer in fighting avian influenza in 2006 is being stripped as the deadly virus reappears in the southern Mekong Delta region. February may see the epidemic sweeping through the entire country, officials warn.
The grim prognosis this week by Vietnam s deputy agriculture and rural development minister Bui Ba Bong comes ahead of an expected surge in transporting poultry as this South-east Asian nation marks the annual Tet Festival, which falls in mid-February.

Since colder weather began sweeping through Vietnam early December, it has seen new outbreaks of the H5N1 strain of bird flu in four provinces in the delta, resulting in the killing or culling of over 40,000 poultry, according to the sta…

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Moyiga Nduru

JOHANNESBURG, Mar 19 2007 (IPS) – Images of tiny, malnourished African children, some scavenging for leftover food, have continued to grace the covers of brochures, posters and video clips of aid agencies since the devastating famine that claimed more than one million lives in Ethiopia 22 years ago.
Since that famine, regarded as one of the worst in recent history, Africa should have attained self-sufficiency in food production. It has not. Of all the resources that the World Food Programme (WFP) is mobilising through appeals to feed 80 million people worldwide this year, 73 percent is for Africa, the United Nations (UN) agency said.

Part of the donations the WFP is raising, estimated at 3.2 billion US dollars for global operations, will go to Southern Af…

Stephanie Nieuwoudt

NAIROBI, Apr 19 2007 (IPS) – The year 2007 marks the birth of a new species : Homo Urbanus. For the first time in history there will be as many city dwellers as rural inhabitants in the world.
Executive director of the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN Habitat), Anna Tibaijuka, coined this term to describe the rise in city and consequently slum dwellers. She was speaking at the 21st session of the governing council of UN Habitat which ends tomorrow (April 20) in the Kenyan capital of Nairobi.

2007 is the year that sees the number of slum dwellers rise to 1 billion people a figure that could double in the next 13 years. In the southern African state of Tanzania alone, the growth in the urban population is around 6 percent per annum whic…

Marcela Valente

BUENOS AIRES, May 28 2007 (IPS) – Capitalising on a more favourable public opinion, an alliance of civil society organisations in Argentina presented to Congress a draft law Monday for the legalisation of abortion in a country where illegal abortions are the main cause of maternal mortality.
Capitalising on a more favourable public opinion, an alliance of civil society organisations in Argentina presented to Congress a draft law Monday for the legalisation of abortion in a country where illegal abortions are the main cause of maternal mortality.

On the International Day of Action for Women s Health, which is celebrated May 28, 250 women s and human rights groups, trade unions, political parties and personalities from the spheres of culture, science and…

Nzwanayi Nyandoro

WINDHOEK, Jul 27 2007 (IPS) – Cardboard and rickety tin structures jostle for space on a barren outcrop in the sprawling suburb of Katutura in Namibia s capital Windhoek. A putrid smell hangs in the still, afternoon air as flies wing their way over the debris.
A child plays in a stagnant pool of water beside a mongrel dog which gives out a half-hearted bark before retiring in the sun-baked dust. Take a stroll from there into Babylon, an informal settlement. The filth and decay, the lack of water and proper sanitary facilities in Babylon and other informal settlements in Namibia, make up a blueprint for a disaster.

With the authorities having done little to address the situation and with people being forced to buy water for as much as 6 Namibian dolla…

Keya Acharya

BANGALORE, Aug 27 2007 (IPS) – Activist groups campaigning for affordable drugs will continue their boycott campaign against Swiss pharma major Novartis AG, whose controversial petition arguing that Indian patent laws violated World Trade Organisation (WTO) provisions was rejected by the Madras High Court in southern Chennai city.
The reason for continuing the boycott is due to the company filing indirectly related appeals in the Madras High Court, Dr. Gopal Dabade, president of the Drug Action Forum of India in Karnataka state (DAF-K) and co-convenor of the All-India Drug Action Network (AIDAN) told IPS.

Novartis filed a fresh appeal, on Aug. 8, a day after it lost its petition against the Indian patents act in the Madras High Court, challenging the appo…