Zofeen Ebrahim
KARACHI, Oct 26 2011 (IPS) – Pakistan s population explosion is posing a greater danger than militancy and religious intolerance, says noted medical doctor and demographer Farid Midhet.
It is the burgeoning population that poses a serious threat to Pakistan s existence, Midhet told IPS. Imagine a Pakistan with a population of 300 million by 2030!
A week before the world prepares to welcome its seven billionth child, on Oct. 31, a jobless Raja Khan, father of two, succumbed to burn injuries sustained when he set himself ablaze in front of parliament house in Islamabad.
Khan who had travelled all the way to the national capital from a village near Naushero Feroz, Sindh province, to carry out an act of extreme desperation left behind a letter say…
Over 10 million residents of Small Island Developing States depend on the Pacific Ocean for survival. Credit: Catherine Wilson/IPS
SYDNEY, Jun 8 2013 (IPS) – The immense scale of the Pacific Ocean, at 165 million square kilometres, inspires awe and fascination, but for those who inhabit the 22 Pacific island countries and territories, it is the very source of life. Without it, livelihoods and economies would collapse, hunger and ill-health would become endemic and human survival would be threatened.
But as populations rapidly escalate, the sustainable future of this vast ecosystem hangs in the balance, while the pressing need for e…
Poor families in Egypt consider circumcision a way to preserve the chastity of girls. Credit: Amr Diab/IPS.
CAIRO, Apr 27 2014 (IPS) – Saber Abd El-Mawgoud began his career castrating sheep and goats before moving on to humans. His first human experiment was a young boy he attempted to circumcise back in 1999 at the insistence of the boy’s father.
The boy died a few days later of infection from the operation, Mawgoud, 67, from the Al-Monofiya governorate 60 km north of Cairo, tells IPS.The practice continues even after female genital mutilation was outlawed in 2007 after an 11-year-old girl died in a private clinic while undergoing the operation.
Mawgou…
A hearing in the Inter-American Court of Human Rights to follow up on compliance with its ruling that Costa Rica’s ban on in vitro fertilisation violates a number of rights. Credit: Inter-American Court of Human Rights
SAN JOSE, Sep 15 2015 (IPS) – After banning in vitro fertilisation for 15 years and failing to comply with an Inter-American Court of Human Rights ruling for nearly three years, Costa Rica will finally once again allow the procedure for cou…
SYDNEY and KUALA LUMPUR, Mar 23 2021 (IPS) – have significant access to coronavirus vaccines before 2023. Unfortunately, a year’s delay will cause an estimated 2.5 million avoidable deaths in low and lower-middle income countries. As the World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General has put it, the world is at the brink of a .
Anis Chowdhury
Vaccine apartheid
The EU, US, UK, Switzerland, Canada and their allies continue to the developing country proposal to temporarily suspend the World Trade Organization (WTO) Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) agreement to enable greatly increased, affordable supplies of COVID-19 vaccines, d…
Female Genital Mutilation is a ‘violent act’ that, among other dramatic consequences, causes infection, disease, childbirth complications and death. Credit: Travis Lupick/IPS
MADRID, Nov 5 2021 (IPS) – While male circumcision is spread mainly among Muslim and other religious communities, and it is apparently accepted by some medical spheres, more than 200 million girls have already fallen prey to a dangerous, abhorrent practice, which is carried out in the name of social and …