News stories by Farhana Haque Rahman, page 3

ROME, Dec 02 (IPS) - Mass public pressure backed by the weight of scientific reports is starting to bring governments to their senses as the annual UN climate summit kicks off in Madrid today.

ROME, Nov 25 (IPS) - Statistics and stories. When aid agencies appeal for funding to tackle the latest refugee crisis and journalists do their reporting, then these are the two narratives most chosen -- one impersonal and the other upfront and individual.

The sheer numbers can feel overwhelming. The UN refugee agency UNHCR says more than 70 million people are currently displaced by conflict, the most since the Second World War. Among them are nearly 26 million who have fled their countries (over half under the age of 18) and 3.5 million more are registered as asylum seekers.

ROME, Nov 19 (IPS) - Mottled and reddish, the Lake Oku puddle frog has made its tragic debut on the Red List, a rapidly expanding roll call of threatened species. It was once abundant in the Kilum-Ijim rainforest of Cameroon but has not been seen since 2010 and is now listed as critically endangered and possibly extinct.

ROME, Oct 31 (IPS) - Barely a week passes without alarming news of the most recent scientific research into the global climate crisis compounding a growing sense of urgency, particularly the impact on small island states from rising sea levels and extreme weather.

ROME, Oct 18 (IPS) - Headwinds are blowing amid IMF warnings of a "synchronised slowdown" in global economic growth, yet Africa's investment drive is still gathering pace, supported by intense international competition in development finance.

Rome and Massachusetts, Sep 19 (IPS) - In a life peppered with tragedy, Mary Shelley wrote in 1818, "Have I not suffered enough, that you seek to increase my misery?" That this accurately sums up the fate of many women in South Asia who suffer a major health shock such as a serious illness or a disability or both, is hard to dispute.

ROME, Sep 05 (IPS) - In an inaugural lecture at the Radcliffe Institute at Harvard University, Amartya Sen began with a swipe at Queen Victoria who complained to Sir Theodore Martin in 1870 about "this mad, wicked folly of 'Woman's Rights'", as in her rarefied world nobody could trample upon her rights. The world has of course changed dramatically and women's rights are widely acknowledged but injustices persist.

Our concern here is with health injustices that are widely prevalent in India. These take multiple forms: female foeticide, widespread morbidity and denial of access to good quality healthcare until a critical condition develops. Our focus here is on vulnerability of women to non-communicable diseases (NCDs) and their limited access to good quality healthcare in India.

ROME and NEW DELHI, Aug 06 (IPS) - Horrific violence against women is unabated and rising in South Asia. On a cold night in December 2012, a ghastly crime was committed in New Delhi which stunned the world. Six men dragged helpless Nirbhaya-a 23-year-old female physiotherapy intern- to the back of the bus and raped her one by one. As she kept fighting off her assailants by biting them, one of the attackers inserted a rusted rod in her private part, ripping her genital organs and insides apart. She died a few days later. One of the accused died in police custody in the Tihar Jail. The juvenile was convicted of rape and murder and given the maximum sentence of three years' imprisonment in a reform facility, and subsequently released. The Supreme Court awarded the death penalty but legal complications have prevented its execution.

ROME, Dec 20 (IPS) - IPS Director General's Year end message

The year now closing, 2018, culminates an extraordinary period in the quest for a world where sexual harassment and assault are, as the words indicate they should be, rare and punished.

DHAKA, Sep 13 (IPS) -
 

Dear Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi,

We learned today that you will address the Rohingya issue via television in Myanmar on 19 September - over 144 hours from now.