Jim Lobe

WASHINGTON, Feb 6 2006 (IPS) – Despite his administration s growing concerns about preventing the collapse of states in strategic parts of the world, U.S. President George W. Bush has proposed cuts in development and disaster assistance while increasing the defence budget by almost seven percent.
Under his 2007 budget request submitted to Congress Monday, Pentagon spending next year would rise to some 440 billion dollars, not including another 120 billion dollars that the administration is expected to ask for as a supplemental appropriation to fund U.S. military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan through September, when fiscal 2006 ends.

By contrast, Bush s proposed 2007 foreign-aid request will remain roughly the same as last year s at some 24 billion dollars, the equivalent of what Washington spends in less than five months in Iraq.

Moreover, the president is calling for a nearly 20 percent cut in development aid from roughly 1.5 billion dollars…

Haider Rizvi

UNITED NATIONS, Mar 13 2006 (IPS) – The United Nations is calling for international institutions and governments worldwide to ensure equal participation of women in decision-making and to take actions to enhance their role in development.
Concluding its two week annual meeting here, which continued until late on Mar. 10, the 45-member Commission on the Status of Women adopted a number of resolutions concerning women s economic, political and social rights.

Deploring all kinds of violence against civilians during armed conflict, the Commission adopted a unanimous resolution urging the immediate release of all women and children. The resolution stressed the need to end impunity and the responsibility of all states to prosecute those responsible for war crimes.

In another resolution, the Commission demanded that Israel comply fully with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Geneva Conventions in order to protect the rights of Palestin…

Moyiga Nduru

JOHANNESBURG, Apr 12 2006 (IPS) – An Africa-wide campaign has been launched to halt HIV infections, this as the continent continues to be the worst affected by AIDS globally.
According to the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), 3.2 million of the five million new infections estimated to have occurred last year were in sub-Saharan Africa. More than 60 percent of all HIV-positive persons (just under 26 million) live in this region, even though it accounts for about 10 percent of the global population.

The Year of Accelerating Access to HIV Prevention was inaugurated simultaneously in Johannesburg, Addis Ababa, Ouagadougou and Khartoum; it is being spearheaded by the African Union and U.N. agencies. The hope is that countries in Africa will intensify and improve efforts to prevent HIV infection.

It is unconscionable that every single day, nearly 2,000 infants are infected with HIV during pregnancy, childbirth or breastfeeding mo…

Constanza Vieira

BOGOTÁ, May 11 2006 (IPS) – Twenty-seven years after Congresswoman Consuelo Lleras unsuccessfully submitted a bill to legalise abortion in Colombia, the country s Constitutional Court has recognised the right to terminate a pregnancy in case of rape, a threat to the woman s life or health, or if the foetus has a deformity that would prevent survival outside the womb.
These were the same three conditions proposed by Lleras. The ruling also includes cases of non-consensual artificial insemination or transfer of fertilised ova, or incest.

Women will have to present a medical certificate when seeking health-related abortions, or file a police report, in the case of rape.

But the response from Colombia s Catholic Church was immediate. In a country where even the Marxist guerrillas fighting a civil war for the past four decades fear excommunication, Cardinal Pedro Rubiano, president of the Bishops Conference, announced that fate Thursday for t…

Gustavo Capdevila

GENEVA, Jun 15 2006 (IPS) – One quarter of the global disease burden in adults is related to environmental risk factors that could be modified with existing interventions, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said in a new report Friday.
And in the case of children, environmental factors are involved in more than one-third of the disease burden, said Carlos Corvalán, coordinator of WHO s department of public health and environment and co-author of the report.

However, the positive message is that we know which type of interventions need to be done in order to reduce that burden of disease and make sure that our health will benefit, said María Neira, WHO director of public health and environment.

We are talking about interventions that are available, Neira told IPS We are talking about reducing air pollution indoors and outdoors, about better access to clean water, about the prevention of chronic acute respiratory infections through the …

Marwaan Macan-Markar

BANGKOK, Jul 26 2006 (IPS) – With its 900,000-strong army of public health volunteers and its spending of over 250 million U.S. dollars to help affected poultry farmers, Thailand was held up as a role model for combating the spread of the deadly bird flu. But the avian influenza virus has proved it has many tricks under its wings.
This week saw Thailand s impressive record of remaining free of the H5N1 strain of the virus for over seven months being shattered by a virus that continues to remain resilient. Following reports in mid-July that there was a bird flu outbreak in the poultry population in the northern province of Pitchit comes confirmation, Tuesday, that a 17-year-old boy has died of the disease. It brings the human fatalities to 15 out of 23 reported human cases of bird flu in Thailand since 2004.

Elsewhere in South-east Asia, this deadly virus is spreading in rural communities, with Indonesia being the worst hit. On Jul. 20, Jakarta…

Marcela Valente

BUENOS AIRES, Sep 1 2006 (IPS) – Out-of-control drug abuse among South American youth myth or reality? Could societal perception have blown the phenomenon way out of proportion? Have we zeroed in on this one issue at the expense of efforts to address the broader context of social problems like poverty and marginalisation?
These provocative questions were posed by Martin Hopenhayn, a researcher in the Social Development Division of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), at the 4th National Conference on Drug Policy that wrapped up Friday in Buenos Aires.

The Chilean academic, a philosopher by training, says the symbolic representation of the problem greatly exaggerates the real prevalence of drug abuse in the region, thereby masking the root problems hidden underneath.

The two-day meeting, organised by the Intercambios Civil Association (for the study of and attention to drug-related problems) at the National Co…

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Naoki Yoshida ผู้กำกับเกม Final Fantasy XIV ได้ออกมาชี้แจงข่าวลือที่ว่าทีมงานของเขากำลังพัฒนาเกมรีเมค Final Fantasy IX ผ่านรายการ Letter from the Producer บนช่อง YouTube ของ Final Fantasy XIV เมื่อวันที่ 14 มิถุนายนที่ผ่านมา

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