ENVIRONMENT-BRAZIL: Eye on Urban Water Pollution

Mario Osava* – IPS/IFEJ

RIO DE JANEIRO, Oct 31 2006 (IPS) – Around 30 million people are affected by water contamination in Brazil s two biggest metropolitan areas. In Sao Paulo, this means water shortages. In Rio de Janeiro, the water supply itself is not diminished, but pollution threatens to make it useless for human consumption.
As a result, these two heavily populated areas live under the threat of periodic shutdowns of their water networks.

For the 18.5 million people who live in the Sao Paulo metropolitan region, it s a time bomb that could explode any moment, says Maria Luisa Ribeiro, coordinator of the Waters Network, an initiative of the local environmental group SOS Mata Atlantica Foundation to promote communication and social participation in national wate…

WORLD AIDS DAY: In Haiti, Gender Can Mean Life or Death

Amy Bracken

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Nov 30 2006 (IPS) – For a rare dose of optimism, stop by the oldest private HIV research centre in the world. Fight your way through the chaotic, filthy streets of downtown Port-au-Prince, through a crowd of men, women and children awaiting care, and you ll find Dr. Jean William Pape, smiling in a crisp white medical cloak.
Pape, the director of Gheskio, which he co-founded in 1982, has good news to report. Studies show that Haiti s HIV rate is less than half what it was in 1993. And today an estimated 10,000 people are on anti-retroviral medication, with funds coming in for double that. In a poor and deeply divided country, public, private and international sectors have come together to fight a horrific epidemic, and made progress.

But the…

DEVELOPMENT-INDIA: IT Hub Can Handle Gigabytes, Not Dog Bites

Keya Acharya

BANGALORE, Jan 17 2007 (IPS) – When a pack of stray dogs tore to pieces the eight-year-old daughter of a construction worker, it showed up the social inequalities and other paradoxes of this global information technology hub.
When a pack of stray dogs tore to pieces the eight-year-old daughter of a construction worker, it showed up the social inequalities and other paradoxes of this global information technology (IT) hub.

Construction for as many as 14 traffic-easing underpasses promised by the municipality is languishing because of delays in firming up proposals, floating tenders, issuing work orders and actual execution. And only one of 11 major road projects, promised several years ago, has been completed.

Aside from the serious infrastructural…

‘Ragnarok V – Returns’ เกม MMORPG ข้ามแพลตฟอร์ม สิ้นสุด CBT ทั้งเกาหลีและภูมิภาค SEA!_2

  • CBT เริ่มตั้งแต่วันที่ 25 มีนาคม ถึงวันที่ 1 เมษายน โดยมีผู้เข้าร่วมเกมในวันแรกมากกว่า 2 หมื่นคนในภูมิภาค SEA
  • ผู้เล่นในภูมิภาค SEA ให้ผลตอบรับอย่างดีพร้อมทั้งรอคอยให้เกมเปิดอย่างเป็นทางการ

บริษัทเกมโกลบอลอย่าง Gravity ได้สิ้นสุด CBT ของเกม MMORPG ข้ามแพลตฟอร์ม Ragnarok V : Returns ทั้ง…

โหดเกิน! เกมเมอร์จีนทดลองรันเกม Black Myth- Wukong บนมือถือ Android ชิป Snapdragon 8 Gen 3

นาทีนี้ปฏิเสธไม่ได้จริงๆ ครับว่า Black Myth: Wukong ได้กลายเป็นหนึ่งในทอล์คออฟเดอะทาวน์ของวงการเกมแล้วด้วยการผสมผสานตำนานชื่อดังก้องโลก เข้ากับเกมเพลย์แอ็กชันที่รวดเร็วทันใจแถมยังมีงานภาพที่สวยชิ้งอีกด้วย โดยตอนนี้เองก็มีให้เล่นกันทั้งบน PlayStation 5 และ PC ซึ่งสำหรับใครที่เป็นสายพกพาก็…

โผล่เกม Daredevil บน PS2 ที่ถูกยกเลิกไป

เกม Daredevil: The Man Without Fear เป็นเกมที่พัฒนาโดย 5000 Ft. Studios และมีกำหนดวางจำหน่ายสำหรับ PS2, Xbox ดั้งเดิม และ PC ในช่วงกลางทศวรรษ 2000 อย่างไรก็ตาม เกมดังกล่าวถูกยกเลิกก่อนที่จะเสร็จสมบูรณ์โดยเหตุผลเกิดจากความขัดแย้งระหว่าง Marvel และ Sony

ข้อมูลนี้ได้มาจาก Hidden Palace ซึ่งเป็นกลุ่มที่อุทิศตนเพื่อการเก็บรักษาเกม โดยกล…

CULTURE-CHINA: Modernisation Drive Confronts the Dragon

Antoaneta Bezlova

BEIJING, Feb 9 2007 (IPS) – As the government completes a modernisation project begun more than a century ago, tensions simmer over the usefulness of such enduring icons of Chinese national identity as the fire-breathing dragon.
In recent months reformers, waging war with purists, have argued that China would be better off dropping the dragon as the national symbol because it could be projecting an image of China as an aggressive, ascending power.

They have also attacked China s ancient healing arts, denouncing them as pseudo science and calling for traditional medicine to be stripped of its protected status in the Chinese constitution.

All these battles have galvanised opinion and provoked debates among the public around one question should …

DEVELOPMENT-MOZAMBIQUE: What To Do When a Cyclone Hits

Ruth Ansah Ayisi

MAPUTO, Mar 20 2007 (IPS) – Sandra Alberto (picture) was heavily pregnant when Cyclone Favio struck Mozambique earlier this month on 2 March, ripping the zinc roof off the house she and her two children had taken refuge in.
Sandra Alberto (32) held her children to prevent them from being blown away by Cyclone Favio. Credit: UNICEF/Thierry Delvigne-Jean

Sandra Alberto (32) held her children to prevent them from being blown away by Cyclone Favio. Credit: UNICEF/Thierry Delvigne-Jean

I grabbed hold of my children because I tho…

BRAZIL: Indigenous Demonstrators Get Results

Mario Osava

RIO DE JANEIRO, Apr 20 2007 (IPS) – The indigenous protesters who camped out this week in the very heart of the Brazilian capital have victories to celebrate, like the installation by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of a national commission on indigenous policy.
Lula received a committee of indigenous leaders Thursday in the seat of government, in a meeting that was not scheduled until late Wednesday. The president said he hopes in his second term, which runs from this year to 2010, to put into effect the programmes in favour of indigenous people that he was unable to implement in his first term, which began in 2003.

The new national commission on indigenous policy, under the Justice Ministry, is made up of 20 representatives of indigenous groups and …

HEALTH-CHINA: Dead Serious on Food and Drug Safety

Antoaneta Bezlova

BEIJING, May 30 2007 (IPS) – China has confirmed the seriousness of recent international scares about rampant fraud and counterfeiting in its booming economy in a most dramatic way by sentencing to death the country s former top drug regulator.
Zheng Xiaoyu, former director of the State Food and Drug Administration, was convicted of taking bribes and failing to curb a scandalous market in fake and dangerous medicines. A Beijing court awarded the death sentence Tuesday morning.

The extreme punishment comes after weeks of heightened fears about the quality and safety of Chinese agricultural and pharmaceutical goods. China, which earns more than 30 billion US dollars a year from food and drug exports to Asia, North America and Europe, has been recently …