-Farmlandgrab.org Oxfam’s Phil Bloomer reports on the shocking scandal of (mostly) secretive land-grabbing, usually from those least able to defend their rights Land grabbing has fast become a major threat to poor communities in Africa, Asia and South America. Poverty-stricken women and men are being driven from their homes and the land they rely on to grow food to eat and make a living, usually without compensation. In many cases this is...
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New UN report finds rate of new HIV infections has fallen by half in 25 countries
-The United Nations A reduction of more than 50 per cent in the rate of new HIV infections has been achieved across 25 low- and middle-income countries – more than half in Africa, the region most affected by HIV – according to a new United Nations report, which shows that unprecedented acceleration in the AIDS response is producing results. “The pace of progress is quickening – what used to take a decade...
More »From plastic portable loos to Sanitary Bonds, India needs a latrine policy-V Raghunathan
-The Economic Times After Mahatma Gandhi, Jairam Ramesh is the only national leader to be genuinely concerned that 65 years after Independence, some 600 million Indians in the 21st century continue to use open skies as their latrines. While Lee Kuan Yew continues to exhort Singaporeans to have cleaner loos, our ministry of railways thinks depositing human excreta all along the country's length and breadth, including deep into the cities -...
More »Mangroves under threat from shrimp farms, UN study says
-Reuters OSLO: Valuable mangrove forests that protect coastlines, sustain sealife and help slow climate change are being wrecked by the spread of shrimp and fish farms, a UN-backed study showed on Wednesday. About a fifth of mangroves worldwide have been lost since 1980, mostly because of clearance to make way for the farms which often get choked with waste, antibiotics and fertilizers, according to the study. Intact mangroves were almost always more valuable...
More »Big cities are gasping for fresh air; air pollution worsens in metros-Shelley Singh
-The Economic Times Along with your tablet, smartphone and car keys, get ready to pack a gas mask. And if you thought the recent smog in Delhi and the more-than-usual pollution levels (20% higher) in the last fortnight were due to the burning of residual crop in Punjab and Haryana, you are wrong. After a steady improvement since the late-1990 s, the air in Delhi — and all other Indian cities —...
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