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The phosphate processing plant of Gabes, seen here with phosphogypsum debris in the foreground. Credit: Justin Hyatt/IPS

GABÈS. Tunisia, Jun 7 2013 (IPS) – The story of Gabès and the local phosphate industry follows a plot that is all too familiar: an underdeveloped town located in an industrial region boasts one major lucrative industry with high output and export values, but the local population and surroundings experience alarming levels of illness and environmental blight.

But locals are no longer remaining as silent as they once were, holding a festival to mark World Environment Day on Jun. 5 and taking other actions such as protesting and using anti-pollutio…

A man holds his ill son in Basra, Iraq shortly after his young daughter had died of cancer. The picture was taken in February 2011. The boy died of cancer a few months later. Credit: Karlos Zurutuza/IPS

UNITED NATIONS, Jul 17 2013 (IPS) – A long-awaited study on congenital birth defects by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Ministry of Health (MOH) in Iraq is expected to be very extensive in nature.

According to WHO, 10,800 households were selected as a sample size for the , which was scheduled to be released early this year but  has not yet been made public.”There is reason why a group of very smart scientists are not exploring the ‘why’ question in their st…

In the Philippines, under regulated advertising for tobacco products, cigarette brands have developed more creative products like packets of 10 sticks instead of the standard 20 to make them cheaper for consumers. Credit: Kara Santos/IPS

WASHINGTON, Sep 7 2013 (IPS) – Between concluding rounds of negotiations towards the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a major U.S.-proposed free trade agreement, a divisive fight has heated up over the extent to which countries should be allowed to regulate the sale of foreign – potentially far cheaper – tobacco products.

In duelling proposals offered during the latest round of negotiations, in Brunei late last month, the Unit…

An open drainage ditch in Madagascar. Credit: Lova Rabary-Rakontondravony/IPS

UNITED NATIONS, Nov 16 2013 (IPS) – The United Nations has a longstanding tradition of commemorating political milestones like the abolition of the slave trade or sustaining day-long vigils on controversial issues such as a ban on nuclear tests.

The annual events have covered a wide range of political, social and economic issues on a 24-hour timeline, including World Cancer Day, World Press Freedom Day, World Refugee Day, World AIDS Day, World Population Day and World Water Day.”An environment that lacks sanitation and clean water is an environment where achieving other development go…

A Palestinian family evacuating home on Nafaq street in Gaza City after the flood. Credit: Mohammed Omer/IPS.

GAZA CITY , Dec 20 2013 (IPS) – Wearing tattered shoes and hopping between dirty puddles, 14-year-old Sabeh manages to find his way to the market at the Al Shati refugee camp, one of Gaza’s most heavily populated and poor areas.

He asks a man selling socks if he can buy a pair for one shekel (29 cents). Sabeh looks despondent when the salesman says, “three shekels and no less.”

The boy protests and says his feet are freezing, but the salesman is adamant. Sabeh tries aga…

Outside the New York federal courthouse on Oct 15, 2013, Ecuadorians and their supporters gather to protest the Chevron lawsuit. Credit: Samuel Oakford/IPS

WASHINGTON, Mar 5 2014 (IPS) – In the latest twist in a 21-year-old environmental pollution case, a U.S. federal judge Tuesday ruled that the victims of massive oil spillage and their U.S. attorney could not collect on a nine-billion-dollar judgement by Ecuador’s supreme court against the Chevron Corporation.

In a racketeering case brought by the U.S. oil giant, the judge found that the lawyer, Steven Donziger, and his associates had used bribery and falsified evidence to prevail against Chevron in Ecuador’s c…

A Patriot interceptor missile is launched from Omelek Island Oct. 25, 2012 during a U.S. Missile Defense Agency integrated flight test. Credit: U.S. Navy

UNITED NATIONS, Apr 25 2014 (IPS) – The tiny Pacific nation state of Marshall Islands which depends heavily on the United States for its economic survival, uses the U.S. dollar as its currency and predictably votes with Washington on all controversial political issues at the United Nations is challenging the world s nuclear powers before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague.

The lawsuit, filed Thursday, is being described as a potential battle between a puny David and a mighty Goliath: a c…

A child receives treatment at the Dr. K. Zaman BNSB Eye Hospital in the northeastern district of Mymensingh, Bangladesh. Credit: Naimul Haq/IPS

MYMENSINGH, Bangladesh, Jun 24 2014 (IPS) – There was a time when four-year-old Taiba, a resident of Makril village in Bangladesh’s central Netrokona district, had little to smile about. The early years of her life were spent trying to cope with bilateral congenital cataracts, referred to in her village simply as ‘child blindness’.

The cloudy film on her natural lens made it difficult to recognise things, and her parents were beginning to despair that she would ever lead a normal life.

Now, sitti…

Fatema,15, sits on the bed at her home in Khulna, Bangladesh, in April 2014. Fatema was saved from being married a few weeks earlier. Local child protection committee members stopped the marriage with the help of law enforcement agencies. Credit: UNICEF

LONDON, Jul 23 2014 (IPS) – Heightening their campaign to eradicate violence against women and girls, United Nations agencies and civil groups have called for increased action to end child marriage and female genital mutilation.

At the first Girl Summit in London Wednesday, hosted by th…