News stories by Zhai Yun Tan

WASHINGTON, Aug 06 (IPS) - Following growing concerns in the United States about the risks of trans fat since 1999, demand for palm oil, a cheap substitute for trans fat, more than doubled over the last decade and is expected to increase, eliciting concerns about deforestation in several Southeast Asian countries that provide 85 percent of the world's palm oil.

WASHINGTON, Jul 23 (IPS) - Two reports released in quick succession by the international rights group Human Rights Watch have highlighted the plight of China's minority Uyghur population and shed light on their continuing struggle to find a safe haven elsewhere in the region.

WASHINGTON, Jul 13 (IPS) - As the Third International Conference on Financing for Development opens in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, Monday, all eyes are on the United Nation's post-2015 development agenda, billed as the most ambitious and far-reaching poverty eradication plan in the organisation's history.

WASHINGTON, Jul 07 (IPS) - Fifty-five percent of the world's poor still have limited protection from hunger and economic, social or political crises despite expansion of social safety programmes in developing countries in recent years.

WASHINGTON, Jul 02 (IPS) - The United Nations' food aid organisation, the World Food Programme (WFP), said on Jul. 1 that up to 440,000 refugees from war-torn Syria might have to go hungry if no additional funds are received by August.

WASHINGTON, Jun 29 (IPS) - A key senator and a D.C.-based think tank are calling for Washington to step up its aid in cleaning up toxic herbicides sprayed by the United States in Vietnam during the war that ended 40 years ago.

WASHINGTON, Jun 17 (IPS) - The 7.8 magnitude earthquake that shook Nepal in April, and the numerous aftershocks that followed, left the country with losses amounting to a third of its economy.