The report presents a mixed picture. Over the past 25 years, there have been notable improvements in child well-being in the group of countries examined in this report: steady decline in child mortality, overall reduction in adolescent suicide and increase in school completion rates. But the last five years have …
Polaroid, the company behind the instant camera, is to stop making the film used in its iconic technology. The firm will close its factories in Massachusetts in the us, Mexico and the Netherlands. Polaroid stopped making the instant cameras about a year ago. It now focuses on other ventures which …
Many governments have implemented conditional cash transfer (CCT) programmes with the goal of improving options for poor families through interventions in health, nutrition, and education. Families enrolled in CCT programmes receive cash in exchange for complying with certain conditions: preventive health requirements and nutrition supplementation, education, and monitoring designed to …
The full introduction of the North American Free Trade Agreement (nafta) has raised concerns among Mexico's farmers who are agitating against it. With nafta kicking in fully on January 1, 2008, all tariffs on us agricultural exports to Mexico have been phased out. Many farmers organized scattered protests, while about …
>> More than 100,000 tonnes of rotting garbage are lying on the roadsides of the southern Italian city of Naples, after garbage trucks stopped operating since the last week of December 2007 because all landfills are full. Authorities fear the stinking heaps could spread disease. >> Bolivia, Chile and Brazil …
"We apologise for recent price increases," reads the sign over the bread counter, "but they are due to global factors beyond our control." This is not a Third World food stall but an upscale supermarket in Brussels, capital of the European Union, whose farming system was once notorious for the …
This report explores industrial demand to distinguish and promote sustainable and fair community forest products in the market. Its ultimate goal is poverty reduction - or more specifically
Even when social institutions agree on conservation goals, for instance, the protection of endemic, rare, or at-risk species in regional conservation area networks, there is typically a long waiting period between setting goals and the formulation of an explicit action plan to achieve those goals, and an even longer period …
An indigenous language in southern Mexico is in danger of disappearing because its last two speakers have drifted apart. The two elderly men, residents of Ayapan village in Mexico's Tabasco province are the only fluent speakers of Zoque. In a bbc interview in November, Fernando Nava of the Mexican Institute …
Mexico's floods fit the pattern of this year's hurricane season: preparedness has restricted loss of life but not economic damage Reuters Things get ugly in Villahermosa THE scale of it all is difficult to imagine. At the flood's height, over four-fifths of the state of Tabasco, in Mexico's south-east, was …
us President George W Bush has announced a climate meeting for the end of September. The announcement comes at a time when there is already a un-led initiative to hammer out an agreement on emission targets after the expiry of Kyoto Protocol, and must been seen as another instance of …
In 1997, the Government of Mexico introduced a conditional cash transfer (CCT) program called Programa de Education, Salud, Y Alimentacion (Progresa), providing assistance to about 300, 000 extremely poor households. The essential premise of a CCT program is a cash transfer to households, conditioned on their participation in health, nutrition, …
the us and Mexico have accused China of giving illegal subsidies to Chinese companies to boost exports, while imposing tax and tariff penalties to limit purchases of foreign products in China. wto started a formal investigation recently based on the allegations. Concerned about the us's rising trade deficits and lost …
Two summits on global warming lay bare a yawning gap over who needs to do what, as well as the ghost of a deal AS WORLD leaders met to discuss cli-Liriate change at the United Nations this week, protesters outside seemed unconvinced that drowning islands and expanding deserts were the …
The dispute over expanding fences along the Mexico-us border seems to be headed towards a crisis. Mexican environmental officials recently said they would drag the us to the International Court of Justice if it did not drop its fencing plans. Their objections are based on fears of harm to wildlife …
problem drug: Pediatric ritalin use may affect developing brain in children, says a new study. Use of the attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder drug may cause long-term changes in the brain, suggests a study on very young rats by researchers from the Weill Cornell Medical College in New York. Ritalin
Markets for ecosystem services are being promoted across the developing world, amidst claims that the provision of economic incentives is vital to bring about resource conservation. This article argues that equity and legitimacy are also critical dimensions in the design and implementation of such markets, if social development goals beyond …
Mining firm Acquitted: On April 24, 2007, Newmont Mining Corporation, the world's biggest gold producer, and one of its executives were acquitted of charges related to dumping unsafe levels of toxic waste into a bay off Indonesia's Sulawesi Island. The judge said documents presented during the trial could not prove …
In November last year, Brazil's National Health Monitoring Agency launched a public debate on regulations that would ban radio and tv advertising for soft drinks and foods with sugar, saturated fat or salt. The government is expected to issue a decree on such measures in June. Brazil is not alone. …
This cave of crystals, buried around 300 metres below Naica mountain in Mexico's Chihuahuan desert, contains some of the largest natural crystals ever found. The cave (10 metre wide, 30 metre long) is a horseshoe-shaped cavity in limestone. Its translucent beams, jutting out from crystalline floor and blocks, measure up …
