POLITICS-RWANDA By Mar 17 Woman Vies for Top Job - On average women constitute 18.8 percent of representatives in parliaments across the world according to the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU). This gender imbalance has been subject to much feminist criticism and many campaigns for change have been staged to address the status quo. The situation is however different in Rwanda. MORE >>
SOUTHERN AFRICA By Mar 17 Unexpected Low Custom Revenue Causes Budget Shortfalls - Plummeting revenues from the Southern African Customs Union (SACU) could cause severe financial difficulties in the region, economic experts warn. To make matters worse, the organisation is split over the future of its tariff pool that largely bankrolls the national budgets of its poorer members. MORE >>
LATIN AMERICA By Mar 17 NGOs Demand Transparency, Reforms in IDB - Dozens of civil society organisations in the Americas are demanding greater transparency and accountability as well as structural reforms in the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), ahead of the multilateral lender's annual meeting of governors that starts Friday in the Mexican resort of Cancún. MORE >>
DEVELOPMENT By Mar 17 Spain’s New Drive to Extend its Interests in Africa - Spain is breaking new ground in its relations with Africa through an ambitious programme which has seen it increasing its development funding to the continent more than six-fold from 2004 to reach 1,4 billion euros in 2008. MORE >>
ENVIRONMENT By Mar 17 Blame on Chinese Dams Rise as Mekong River Dries Up - As the water level in the Mekong River dips to a record 50-year low, a familiar pattern of fault-finding has risen to the surface. China, the regional giant through which parts of South-east Asia’s largest waterway flows through, is again at the receiving end of verbal salvoes from its neighbours. MORE >>
ENERGY-LATIN AMERICA By Mar 17 Moving Towards Renewables - Argentina is building its first solar energy park in the northwestern province of San Juan. The project calls for the manufacture of photovoltaic panels to supply the rest of the country and the other member countries of the Southern Common Market (Mercosur). MORE >>
EDUCATION-SIERRA LEONE By Mar 17 Government Ignores Demands for Additional Teachers - Ismail Conteh has been teaching for the past year-and-a-half at a primary school in Sierra Leone’s capital Freetown – without receiving a single cent. He is one of hundreds of teachers recruited by schools to match the ever-growing number of pupils. MORE >>
PAKISTAN By Mar 17 In More Ways Than One, Bollywood Dancing Creates Waves - Saleha Firdaus, a mother of two teenage children, has been moving to the Bollywood beat at a dance studio for over a year now and "loves every moment" of this personal time. For her part, 22-year-old Maheen Jafri was a "bedroom dancer" until she discovered a Bollywood and hip-hop dance studio and "shed my inhibitions totally." MORE >>
NAMIBIA By Mar 16 "If You Kiss for Five Minutes You Get It" - "At home we have a bar," says grade seven learner David Bravo* (14). "When my mother puts on the music I cannot concentrate on (my) schoolwork anymore. Sometimes, in the middle of the night, I just sit there and watch the people." MORE >>
SWAZILAND By Mar 16 Budget Cuts Ahead but More Money for Education and Health - Her swollen feet are a constant reminder to Sanele Matsebula that she needs to take her medication. MORE >>
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