Aly Ouattara
KORHOGO, Northern Côte d Ivoire, Jun 27 2007 (IPS) – As Côte d Ivoire tries to pick up the pieces after five years of civil war, efforts are getting underway to deal with a notable casualty of the conflict: the health of livestock in the north, formerly under rebel control.
Starting next month and ending January 2009, about three million stock animals will be vaccinated by authorities, with financial assistance from the European Union. During the war, government controls for maintaining the care of farm animals in northern Côte d Ivoire collapsed while much of the equipment used in these controls was destroyed. This led to a decline in the health of livestock, and a knock-on effect concerning the wellbeing of communities.
Today, there is no assurance …
Antoaneta Bezlova
BEIJING, Aug 1 2007 (IPS) – Dogged by a plethora of reports in the foreign media highlighting problem Chinese goods and worried that product-safety recalls are spiralling into a major problem for its export juggernaut, Beijing has shifted gear to defend its battered Made in China reputation.
Reluctant to acknowledge the problem when it first came to light several months ago, Chinese authorities are now daily rounding up companies suspected of faulty products.
The safety crackdown on domestic producers has been accompanied by a public relations campaign, aimed at international traders.
The Chinese government pays great attention to addressing flaws in product quality, especially the quality of food products, Li Changjing, an official with the…
Bert Wilkinson
GEORGETOWN, Aug 30 2007 (IPS) – A quiet but perhaps long overdue debate is taking place in this small English-speaking South American republic over the growing power and influence alternative medical practitioners, some of whom have recently been forced to officially back away from claims about special powers to heal everything from HIV/AIDS to various forms of cancer.
But while members of the Guyana Association of Alternative Medicine (GAM) recently concurred with a health ministry statement denouncing these more far-fetched claims, the spectacular rise of herbal doctors in recent years remains undisputed.
GAM has about 40 members, but there are dozens of roadside and market vendors selling their own mystery concoctions around the country.
It i…
Irfan Shahzad
KARACHI, Oct 2 2007 (IPS) – Unlike his neighbours in the opposite lane, Muhammad Salam lets his children play out in the street without the slightest worry.
That is because Salam, a resident of Ghaziabad locality in the big Orangi informal settlement in this port city, is happy for the concrete paving along the street he lives on. Beneath the concrete is a sewerage line that efficiently collects wastewater from all 24 houses in the area.
Not all the streets in this mega slum, however, enjoy the same privilege. Quite a few of the lanes are difficult to pass through due to streams of reeking water, thanks to the lack of an adequate municipal sewage system, a common problem in the cities of this South Asian country.
I have no worries that my kids w…
Aaron Glantz
SAN FRANCISCO, Oct 19 2007 (IPS) – U.S. Army Specialist James Eggemeyer injured himself before he even set foot in Iraq, jumping out of a C-130 gunship during training at Fort Bragg, North Carolina.
James Eggemeyer in Iraq. Credit:
I jumped out and the jumpmaster who was holding that line that was wrapped around my arm had to cut the line because I was pretty much being dragged behind the airplane, the 25-year-old Florida native told IPS as he drove a donated truck through the streets of his hometown of Port Saint Lucie, a two-hour drive north of Miami, Florida.
I hit the…
Philip Rouwenhorst
NEW YORK, Nov 26 2007 (IPS) – An international campaign to eradicate polio received a major boost Monday with the announcement that the Bill Melinda Gates Foundation would give 100 million dollars to support intensified immunisation in the handful of countries where the virus remains active.
The grant went to the Rotary Foundation, an organisation of service clubs with over 1.2 million members worldwide, and its PolioPlus Programme.
It #39s a very large grant for us. Certainly not the largest we #39ve ever made, but on the other hand this is perhaps one of the largest possibilities we #39ve had to deal with: ultimate eradication of this horror from the lives of children. There #39s almost no figure that is too high to invest in that possible end, W…
Abid Aslam
WASHINGTON, Jan 7 2008 (IPS) – U.S. environmentalists took Shell Oil Co. and several of its affiliates to court Monday in a bid to stop pollution from a refining and chemicals plant in the southwestern state of Texas.
The Sierra Club and Environment Texas want a federal judge to order Shell to cease alleged violations of the Clean Air Act at its 1,500-acre Deer Park complex, located 20 miles east of downtown Houston. The sprawling metropolis is home to Shell and much of the U.S. oil industry.
The U.S. unit of Royal Dutch Shell Group faces possible civil penalties of up to 32,500 dollars per day for each of about 1,000 violations that the groups allege took place between 2003 and 2007.
The case seems destined to draw attention because it involves the…
Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS, Feb 11 2008 (IPS) – The world #39s 2.2 billion children are under siege battling poverty, hunger, military conscription, sexual abuse, labour exploitation and HIV/AIDS, according to the United Nations.
The world body estimates that over 600 million children live in absolute poverty worldwide; about 218 million suffer the worst forms of child labour; over 2.5 million are infected with HIV/AIDS; and more than 250,000 to 300,000 are forcibly pressed into military service as soldiers.
The U.N. children #39s agency UNICEF says that nearly half the estimated 3.6 million people killed in military conflicts since 1990 were children.
Despite continuing efforts by governments, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and humanitarian organisati…
Miriam Mannak
CAPE TOWN, Mar 8 2008 (IPS) – The need for a global effort to address the shortage of anaesthesiologists in Africa was highlighted over the past week during the World Congress of Anaesthesiologists which took place in Cape Town, South Africa.
Bisola Najin Obembe of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital, Nigeria. Credit: Miriam Mannak/IPS
This event, which is held every four years, drew over 7,000 international delegates. It was organised by the World Federation of Societi…
Milagros Salazar
LIMA, Apr 23 2008 (IPS) – The U.S. company running a large multi-metal smelter in the Peruvian city of La Oroya, one of the most polluted places on earth, is facing sanctions for violating air quality standards.
Credit: Courtesy of La República newspaper.
Mining and metallurgical company Doe Run Peru overran emission limits to such an extent that on Mar. 11 the German independent auditing firm TÜV Rheinland withdrew their ISO 14001 environmental certification, issued in 2006.
In a document seen by IPS, the state Technical Committee on A…