IRIN
Millions of Bangladeshis poisoned by arsenic-laced water
Friday, June 25th, 2010BANGKOK, 25 June 2010 (IRIN) – A fifth of all deaths in Bangladesh are linked to drinking water contaminated by arsenic, while up to 77 million people – half the population – have been chronically exposed to the poisonous metalloid, according to a new study published in the Lancet medical journal.
Researchers tracked 12,000 people over [...]
UN urges improved treatments for drug addicts
Thursday, June 24th, 2010BANGKOK, 24 June 2010 (IRIN) – The UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) is urging Asian governments – which have been criticized for using “fear-based tactics” and prison-like compulsory centres to fight drug abuse – to improve and expand treatment for its addicts.
UNODC regional representative Gary Lewis said drug therapy must be made available [...]
Eyewitness recounts hours-long trudge through landslide sludge
Tuesday, June 22nd, 2010BANGKOK, 22 June 2010 (IRIN) – A week ago, Liselott Agerlid, a political counsellor for the Swedish government in Bangkok, set off on a routine trip to Myanmar’s Northern Rakhine State to visit projects co-financed by Sweden.
But when three days of monsoon rains caused the worst flooding and landslides in memory in the townships of [...]
Governments called to account on human trafficking
Thursday, June 17th, 2010BANGKOK, 17 June 2010 (IRIN) – Southeast Asian governments added to the US State Department’s human trafficking watch list must bolster efforts to prosecute and convict traffickers, activists say.
Thailand, Vietnam and Laos all slipped in their efforts over the past year to tackle human trafficking, according to the US State Department’s latest Trafficking in Persons [...]
Getting ready for the big one
Tuesday, June 15th, 2010BANGKOK, 15 June 2010 (IRIN) – The densely populated Bangladeshi capital of Dhaka, which lies dangerously close to a major fault line, comprises thousands of shoddily engineered buildings at risk of collapse in a powerful earthquake, experts warn.
Almost 80,000 buildings would be destroyed if a six magnitude tremor originated beneath Dhaka, according to a government [...]
Tough times in distant Oecusse
Monday, May 17th, 2010OECUSSE, 17 May 2010 (IRIN) – Elisa Kefi and her 63-year-old sister brave the heat and sit on the side of the street selling nuts and small vegetables in Timor-Leste’s Oecusse enclave. “The government doesn’t really pay us much attention, but we still have to look for money to feed our families,” said mother-of-three Kefi, [...]
Poor storage adds to food insecurity
Tuesday, April 27th, 2010DILI, 26 April 2010 (IRIN) – Almost a third of Timor-Leste’s maize harvest is lost each year due to poor storage facilities, analysts say, fuelling food insecurity.
“This is a multi-faceted problem, but better storage containers could certainly mitigate the problem, provided people understand their benefits,” Paul Joicey, country director for Oxfam, told IRIN.
About three-quarters of [...]
Cuban connection helps healthcare woes
Friday, April 2nd, 2010DILI, 29 March 2010 (IRIN) – Well before 8am, the reception at Bairo Formosa health centre in Dili, the capital of Timor-Leste, is bursting with people. The medical staff – a Timorese dental specialist, public doctor and six Cuban medics – see up to 600 patients a day.
Since independence in 2002, one of the biggest [...]
High hopes for bio-briquettes
Friday, April 2nd, 2010DILI, 3 November 2009 (IRIN) – Bio-briquettes, a cheap and environmentally friendly fuel, could have the twin benefit of mitigating unemployment and deforestation in Timor-Leste – two significant problems in one of Asia’s poorest nations.
“We’re increasing our capacity for our future,” said Mateus Tame, one of a group of young workers learning the art of [...]
Lifesaving lessons in childbirth
Friday, April 2nd, 2010DILI, 2 September 2009 (IRIN) – In 2005, a woman was taken to hospital in Maliana District, Timor-Leste, after experiencing labour pains for three days at home. She delivered a stillbirth and was referred to the national hospital in the capital Dili with complications that needed eight operations. Her husband left her and her family [...]