IPS News
IPS Inter Press Service - Millennium Development Goals
IPS, civil society's leading news agency, is an independent voice from the South and for development, delving into globalisation for the stories underneath.

RIGHTS: "Famine Marriages" Just One Byproduct of Climate Change
UNITED NATIONS, Mar 9 (IPS/TerraViva) - 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.
PERU: Suspension of Mining Operation Merely a Placebo
LIMA, Mar 9 (IPS) - Although the Peruvian government reported that it had suspended the exploration activities of the Afrodita mining company in the country's northern Amazon jungle region to avoid further protests by local indigenous people, officials took no actual steps to bring the firm's work to a halt.
INTERNATIONAL WOMEN?S DAY: ?We Will Demonstrate, As They Celebrate?
KAMPALA, Mar 8 (IPS) - ?Equal rights; equal opportunities? may be the theme for this year?s International Women?s Day, but while women around the world celebrate, a group of Ugandan women are protesting against the suppression of their rights.
HEALTH-SOUTH AFRICA: Five Years to Children Born Free of HIV
JOHANNESBURG, Mar 8 (IPS) - 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.
TRINIDAD: Women Demand a Real Gender Policy
PORT OF SPAIN, Mar 8 (IPS) - A few days after she created history by becoming the first woman to be elected as opposition leader and the leader of a major political party in Trinidad and Tobago, Kamla Persad Bissessar was kicking mad at the "misunderstanding" of the role of women and their contribution to society.
Q&A: Qualified Women Have Better Chance in Top Jobs
UNITED NATIONS, Mar 8 (IPS/Terraviva) - Irina Bokova, who was elected director-general of the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) last September, heads the Paris-based agency at a time when the world body has placed a high priority on gender empowerment.
SOUTH AFRICA: Community Fears World Cup Will Cause Homelessness
CAPE TOWN, Mar 8 (IPS) - While South African parliamentarians attended a swanky pre-International Women?s Day celebration at Cape Town?s International Convention Centre, a group of destitute women in decaying Kewtown, just seven miles away, worried about looming homelessness.
INDIA: No Stopping Reserved Seats for Women in Parliament
NEW DELHI, Mar 8 (IPS) - With assured backing from India's main opposition groups, the ruling Congress party hopes to see voted through in the upper house of Parliament Monday a bill reserving 33 percent of seats in national and provincial legislatures for women.
RIGHTS-SWAZILAND: Property Rights At Last for Women
MBABANE, Mar 5 (IPS) - A recent court ruling has finally given Swazi women the right to own and administer property in their own names.
CUBA: A Good Old Age in Old Havana
HAVANA, Mar 5 (IPS) - In the centre of Old Havana, historic buildings are being restored without neglecting the occupants who are their heart and soul. The priority is to care for elderly residents with programmes that could become a model for the rest of Cuba, whose population is ageing fast.
CENTRAL AMERICA: Women Make Headway in Politics - and Want More
GUATEMALA CITY, Mar 5 (IPS) - The victory of Laura Chinchilla in Costa Rica's presidential elections, and the growing participation of women in Central American parliaments, point to their progress in the region's spheres of political power. But they still have a long way to go, experts say.
RIGHTS: Arab Women Caught Between Extremes
UNITED NATIONS, Mar 4 (IPS) - The status of women in a predominantly male-chauvinistic Arab world continues to fluctuate from one extreme to another.
RIGHTS: U.N. Women's Agency Remains Politically Paralysed
UNITED NATIONS, Mar 3 (IPS/TerraViva) - A longstanding proposal for the creation of a special U.N. agency for women - officially called a "gender entity" - is apparently moving at the sluggish pace of a paralytic snail.
DR CONGO: Will Poultry Project Live up to Expectations?
KINSHASA, Mar 3 (IPS) - For some seven million Congolese living in Kinshasa the only meat and poultry they could buy to eat since the 1980s was frozen imports from Western countries, distributed locally by a few local businessmen.
MIDEAST: Gap Lingers Between Women's Political and Legal Rights
WASHINGTON, Mar 3 (IPS/TerraViva) - Last year, Kuwaitis elected their first female members of Parliament. Yet in countries like Yemen, child marriage remains common and personal status laws still discriminate against women in matters concerning marriage, divorce and child custody.