Diana Cariboni
MONTEVIDEO, Nov 11 2008 (IPS) – Uruguayan President Tabaré Vázquez and his cabinet have 10 days to promulgate or veto a bill that would decriminalise abortion in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy, which was passed Tuesday by the Senate.
A year ago, in November 2007, the Senate approved the original version of the bill on sexual and reproductive health. On Nov. 5, it barely squeaked through the lower house of Congress, but with slight modifications, which meant it had to clear the Senate again, which it did with 17 of the 30 senators present.
However, socialist President Vázquez of the governing left-wing Broad Front has long announced that he would veto the bill.
For us, the verdict was in on Wednesday Nov. 5, but today marks the start of the …
Baradan Kuppusamy
KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 4 2009 (IPS) – A raging debate over mandatory HIV screening has exposed fear and ignorance within government, despite years of awareness campaigns to eradicate prejudice against people living with the virus and acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS).
Some high officials have suggested that those with HIV be quarantined at specially constructed camps, or even isolated on islands, to safeguard the general population.
Others are calling for new mandatory rules forcing all Muslim couples, about to tie the knot, to be tested for HIV status before being allowed to marry. They also want rules to bar infected couples from having sex or having babies.
There have even been calls for mandatory screenings for all Malaysians, irrespe…
Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS, Feb 18 2009 (IPS) – The food crisis that spilled over from last year could take a turn for the worse in the next decade if there are no explicit answers to a rash of growing new problems, including declining agricultural production, a faltering distribution network and a deteriorating environment worldwide.
The Polis…
Ben Case
UNITED NATIONS, Mar 24 2009 (IPS) – On World Tuberculosis Day Tuesday, the World Health Organisation (WHO) released a report showing that new surveillance techniques and more complete country reports reveal the incidence of tuberculosis (TB) co-infection with HIV to be almost double what was previously thought.
Tuberculosis bacteria multiply…
Mohammed Omer
AMSTERDAM, Apr 27 2009 (IPS) – Mohammed Al-Sheikh Yousef could save his eyesight if only he could cross the border out of Gaza. He was denied a permit by Israel; he got one from Egypt, but not for someone to accompany him. And he can t go on his own because he cannot see very well.
Gazan children protesting at the Rafah border with Egypt. Credit: Mohammed Omer
If Mohammed does not get out of Gaza for medical treatment within the next 14 days, he may totally lose his eyesight and be blind for life, Dr. …
Keya Acharya
BANGALORE, May 25 2009 (IPS) – India passed a law for equal opportunities and rights for persons with disabilities in 1995, but in spite of taking more steps than some other developing countries, its 60 million physically challenged population remains hugely disadvantaged.
There are very few options in wheelchair production, especially for children, with no regular supply of whatever is available, K.N. Gopinath, assistant director of the Bangalore-based Association of People with Disabilities (APD), a national organisation working to empower the physically challenged told IPS.
Technology in locomotion and mobility for the disabled has progressed worldwide, but India continues to use antiquated tricycles and wheelchairs as mobility devices.
Basic…
Eva Bartlett
GAZA CITY, Jun 18 2009 (IPS) – Biddun mey, fish heyya , they say in Arabic for a universal truth: Without water, there is no life .
A cesspool in Gaza arising from Israeli bombing. Credit: Emad Badwan
While diminishing water resources are a global concern, in Palestine the struggle for water is not against global warming or multinational corporations, but for access to water, and against contamination of what precious resources there are.
Mohamed Ahmed, director of the Water Control Department in the Palestinian Wate…
Dalia Acosta
BÁGUANOS, Cuba, Jul 29 2009 (IPS) – Canta Rana, which somewhat ironically translates as Singing Frog , is more than just a neighbourhood in this town in the drought-stricken eastern Cuban province of Holguín. Here, at the highest point in the area, which provides a view of the entire town and the sugar mill tower, there is a huge tank marked by rust, the passage of time and the scarcity of water.
Canta Rana Credit: Jorge Luis Baños/IPS
Local residents would like to turn the page and forget about the severe drought that devastated the region for nearly a decade, but they can…
Thalif Deen
STOCKHOLM, Aug 19 2009 (IPS) – Dr. Bindeshwar Patak, the 2009 Stockholm Water Prize Laureate and founder of a grassroots sanitation movement in India, recounts the days before his country s independence in 1947 when toilets were a rare sight in remote villages and towns under British rule.
Dr. Bindeshwar Pathak at Water Week press briefing. Credit: Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI)
An English woman, who was planning a trip to colonial …
NEW DELHI, Sep 24 2009 (IPS) – Here s a statistic that reveals the truth about gender relations in India.
Dr Sandeep Guleria: It is very rare for a husband to donate a kidney to his wife. Credit: Rahul/IPS
Of the roughly 4,000 kidney transplants performed across the country in a year, about 80 percent of donors are women, with wives making up more than 90 percent of spousal donations.
Significantly, 80 percent of beneficiaries are men. There is gender bias, declares Sandeep G…