Korogocho location chief Rebecca Balongo told IRIN/PlusNews that many programmes supporting HIV-affected households had collapsed. "It is not unusual to have a family share only a plate of food in a day," he said.

Little help

The Kenya Network of Women with AIDS, which until 2009 provided food assistance to about 4,000 HIV-positive people in slums in central Kenya, has had to shut down its feeding programme due to lack of funding.

"We are no longer giving food at our drop-in centres in Korogocho, Kiambiu, Soweto and Mathare slums in Nairobi, Kiandutu slums in Thika and Kiawara slums in Nyeri town," said KENWA advocacy programme officer James Ndung'u.

"KENWA is only providing highly nutritious porridge to the very weak and bedridden clients.

"The slums have high HIV prevalence rates and without food there are challenges; our nurse has reported clients failing to collect ARVs on schedule - they say they are busy looking for work to buy food," he added. "ARVs require one to have a proper diet, but on an empty stomach, there is a tendency to default and consequent risk of drug resistance."

A few programmes continue to provide support in the form of food or cash transfers. Concern Worldwide has started a cash transfer programme in Korogocho to provide food subsidies of about US$20 per month to 2,000 extremely vulnerable households, including bed-ridden HIV-positive people. (PlusNews)

Senator Coburn had blocked the bill's passage due to funding authorizations of $40 million intended to help communities victimized by LRA violence. The compromise language reached uses slightly different wording in calling for the funding and added an emphasis making clear that the allocation should come from the existing foreign aid budget instead of adding to it.

Now, focus will turn to the House of Representatives, where the bill will soon be considered by the Foreign Affairs committee before being voted on by the full chamber.

Mark Nehrenz, the Oklahoman who coordinated the Hold Out, was overcome with emotion in response to news of the victory:

"First, I want to join with a chorus  of Oklahomans in thanking Senator Coburn for listening to our voices and hearing our cries for the children of Uganda and central  Africa. Over the the last eleven days and nights, I have stood beside, slept beside, and frozen beside amazingly committed individuals from this state and all over this country. It has been painful and cold, but worth every last second.

"I have never been prouder to say I am from this state. The support we have received from everyday people  and students in downtown Oklahoma City moves me to tears. I want to thank each and every person who was a part of this stand in some way. We all did this together. What has happened here has been a monumental achievement towards peace and justice in central Africa, and for each of us it has been a life-changing affirmation of the power of our voices.

"We have seen the strength in engagement and dialogue as opposed to an 'us vs. them' battle. We believe that our actions speak louder than our words, and as we have turned from 'the kids sleeping in the street' to 'our friends outside', we have seen the world start to change.

"We hope this bill is the beginning of the end of Africa's longest running war, but this stand has been the beginning of something else: A new kind of activism and engagement, rooted in passion, respect, dignity and dialogue. We believe in building relationships in order to change hearts and minds.

"As a movement, we found our voices this week, and we will not be silent. We are here to stay." (Resolve Uganda)

"Agricultural production, HIV and AIDS, food security and poverty are interconnected and cannot be tackled in isolation of each other. We believe a comprehensive approach is key to achieving the underlying objective of CAADP ... meeting Goal One of the Millennium Development Goals of eradicating extreme poverty and hunger ... at current trends, Swaziland is unlikely to achieve [this] by 2015."

Swaziland is no longer a net exporter of foodstuffs: drought and a population that has tripled since independence from Britain in 1968 have forced people to farm marginal lands, while HIV/AIDS has decimated the agricultural workforce. According to UNAIDS, about 26 percent of Swaziland's sexually active population are infected with HIV.

Membership of CAADP paves the way for the establishment of an Agricultural Development Bank of Swaziland, which could be used to provide loans or grants for subsidising agricultural inputs.

Such an eventuality would necessitate a sea change in relations between the government and non-governmental organizations (NGOs), which provide vital support in most of the country's social and agricultural spheres.

"Laudable as this show of support is, the question remains whether government can indeed work with NGOs, the private sector and the beneficiaries," said a director - who declined to be identified - of an NGO affiliated to the Congress of Non-Governmental Organisations (CANGO), an umbrella organization for NGOs.

"The [government] ministries have always worked independently - they are territorial. It will be interesting to see if they can work together, and if the voices of the rural farmers will be heard, or whether solutions will be imposed," he told IRIN.

A broad front

UNAIDS Country Coordinator Sophia Monico noted that "All the UN agencies are coordinating our work on AIDS. We're setting an example by forging an alliance between specialties."

She said the UN would adopt a comprehensive approach: food security issues would be handled by WFP, AIDS issues would be handled by UNAIDS, the UN Children's agency (UNICEF) would deal with issues concerning children affected by HIV and AIDS, and poverty reduction issues, under the authority of the UN Development Programme, would be strategically coordinated.

"It's like getting relief supplies to areas hit by disaster - it's not enough to put food on the plane, you have to get the delivery infrastructure working, the beneficiaries' needs sorted out, and rebuild the agriculture sector to make food production sustainable again," said Charles Ndwandwe, a food aid distributor in Mliba.

"That's what must be done in Swaziland," he commented. "It's harder when AIDS complicates things, but this is being factored in." (IRIN)

When the country is in the midst of its worst electricity crisis for 50 years, the answer is lots. In fact, an entire army's worth.

On the Fuerte Tiuana military base in Caracas, there is a warehouse full of light bulbs. Hundreds of boxes of Firefly energy-efficient bulbs are sitting in vast stacks, ready to be loaded onto waiting trucks by the troops.

Meanwhile, the other half of the warehouse is a graveyard for used and spent light bulbs.

Huge amounts of filaments and broken glass have been swept into small mountains before being shipped to Venezuela's second city, Maracaibo, for safe disposal because of the mercury content.

Outside the warehouse, a platoon of soldiers is standing to attention for their colonel before being dispatched to hand out the light bulbs in one of the capital's poorest neighbourhoods.

"Today's mission is vital for the health and development of the nation. And it comes directly on orders from the commander-in-chief," barks the colonel.

Greedy consumers

There can be little doubt that the measure to swap over the country's light fittings comes from on high.

It is part of an effort to tackle the fact that Venezuelans are the highest energy consumers per capita in Latin America - by a significant margin.

The recently nationalised state-run electricity company, Corpoelec, says Venezuelans consume more than 1,000 kilowatt hours a year per person than the second biggest users in the region, Chile.

Unloading the low-energy bulbs into their knapsacks, the troops have been joined by volunteers from the local community council - pro-government teams set up under President Hugo Chavez.

These small groups of red-clad Chavez supporters and soldiers in green uniforms, referred to as "civic-military partnerships", are heading into San Augustin, one of the city's roughest parts.

"I've been doing this for a month," says Miriam Parra de Gonzalez, an activist with the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV).

"People have reacted well on the doorsteps because it saves them money. The incandescent light bulbs wear out more quickly and these ones use less energy, so they last longer," she says.

"Plus we're giving them away for free!"

Changing attitudes

At a scrap yard and car wash tucked away in San Augustin, the manager, a Spanish immigrant called Miguel Alvarez Lopez, ushers us into a small apartment which he is currently renovating.

"In the business, I changed around 40 bulbs last week through Mision Sucre [one of the government's social missions] and now another five today in this apartment."

Asked whether it is the money or the energy he is most interested in saving, his answer is emphatic: "It's the money," he says - a response many in San Augustin would likely echo.

But Mr Alvarez is quick to add that "given the crisis situation we're experiencing, it's also necessary to show a little of the consciousness that we should all have in Venezuela".

The president of Corporelec and vice-minister for electrical energy, Javier Alvarado, is confident that the current crisis is helping change public attitudes.

"For many years, we have had the huge oil income and, you know, you kind of get spoilt. You get used to an easy life," he says.

Faced with such apathy and indifference among Venezuelans, he says the government has launched a ferocious public education campaign, to be combined with a carrot-and-stick policy for industrial and major domestic energy consumers.

Fines and rewards were applied last weekend.

But many are critical of the government's response.

"It's ironic that a country blessed as it is with the energy resources that Venezuela has, in both hydrocarbons and fresh water for hydroelectric power, is in the dire straits that we're in right now," says the general manager of the Venezuelan-American Chamber of Commerce, Carlos Tejeda.

The basic problem is that electrical capacity has not kept up pace with demand over the past 10 years, he says.

"The fact that we're in these circumstances points to a lack of management, a lack of planning. That's evidently the case."

Switching off one at a time

The business community is concerned that the government's energy-saving initiatives, such as forced blackouts and heavy fines for any company which does not cut its electricity consumption by 20%, will cripple Venezuelan productivity.

"Some companies can reduce by 5%, or maybe 8% tops," says Mr Tejeda. "But to cut by 20%, you can only do that by lowering production itself."

Mr Alvarado concedes lessons need to be learnt from the current crisis.

"The fast increase in demand maybe caught us by surprise," he admits.

"But we are investing extensively in thermo-electrical plants, and after these problems with El Nino, we will come out with a more solid, more robust power system."

In the meantime, every light bulb helps, he says.

"We are 27 million Venezuelans. If all of us switch off one light, that's 27 million light bulbs, and that's what makes the difference. I feel sure that the solution is in the small details like that." (Grant, Will)

“For farmers the biggest risk is weather. To minimize exposure, they tend to use as little inputs as possible. As a consequence, their harvest is below the optimum even when rains are good. Insurance gives them the security of a payout in case of a full crop failure, therefore promoting investment in farming inputs and subsequently improving productivity,” she said.

The insurance programme is targeting at least 5,000 farmers in Central, Rift Valley and Western provinces, covering maize and wheat, which are facing considerable weather risk.

Said Goslinga: “A key challenge is that insurance is new to farmers and it generally has a bad reputation. Capacity building and trust are key challenges.”

“These new tools to manage risk will need to be complemented with investments that reduce the risks faced by poor households, such as low-cost irrigation schemes and drought-resistant seed varieties,” the IFPRI report stated. “To make index insurance viable, a long-term, reliable, and homogeneous database of weather information is needed, as are weather stations that report weather data quickly.” (IRIN)

Some 400,000 health workers and volunteers will go from door-to-door in 19 countries, giving oral polio vaccine to children under the age of five.

Africa has made significant progress in the fight against polio, which attacks the nervous system, but the virus has still not been stamped out.

Previous efforts at eradication failed as too few children were vaccinated.

The effort is a joint campaign by the Red Cross and United Nations.

Many analysts believe the key to its success lies with Nigeria.

In the past, campaigns in the north of the country were met with suspicion by religious leaders, some of whom even suggested the vaccinations were an attempt to spread sterility and HIV.

But religious groups are now showing support for vaccination drives, and correspondents say there is optimism that the debilitating, sometimes fatal, virus can be eradicated.(BBC)

But the oceans are under extreme pressure and many fear we are running out of fish.

The experience of the Grand Banks Cod Fishery, off the east coast of Canada, serves as a grim warning.

It had been landing tens of thousands of tonnes of cod every year for centuries.

But, in the early 1990s, one of the world's most abundant populations of the fish suddenly collapsed, leading to a total fishing moratorium.

"Forty thousand fishermen lost their livelihoods," says Rupert Howes, chief executive of the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC). "This was the wake-up call."

Over the last 50 years, the amount of fish caught around the world has increased five times. We used to think the oceans were limitless: now we know this isn't true.

The MSC was established 10 years ago to help transform fishing. A partnership of businesses, scientists and environmentalists, it certifies seafood that has been caught in a sustainable way.

At the moment, 10% of seafood is certified by the MSC as sustainable. Now it is moving into one of the biggest and most challenging markets - Japan.

Market forces

Although Japan has just 2% of the world's population, it eats 10% of its fish. It's a national obsession.

In Tokyo's Tsukiji market - the world's largest - they trade more than 400 different types of seafood, from wriggling eels to 300kg tuna.

Before World War II, the vast majority of Japan's fish came from local waters. But now, because of depleted stocks, 40% of this fish is actually imported.

If this market is to have a future, it is essential that all these fish are caught using sustainable methods.

This will not happen unless customers understand the importance of sustainability and demand MSC-certified fish.

But, as Alvin Hall found out, few Japanese people know anything about the MSC.

"Is it to protect whales?" asked one woman.

"I've only heard the name," said another. "I don't know what they do."

Tradition counts

The solution may lie in the small port of Yaizu. Here, some fishermen still use the traditional pole-and-line method to catch skipjack tuna, rather than nets.

This is more sustainable because young, small fish, that have not yet reproduced, can be thrown back. But fewer than 30% of Yaizu's fish are caught this way.

Hiroyuki Myojin, the president of a local fish processing factory, is determined to change this.

His ambition is to get his processing company MSC-certified, not only to ensure his own future but also as a marketing tool.

He only buys pole and line-caught fish. But winning certification is a rigorous process. To be successful, not only does the fishery have to become certified, but the entire supply chain.

Every step is checked, from fishery to processor, distributor, right up to the ultimate retailer, whether a supermarket or restaurant.

It will take many months.

"Given the choice," he says, "99% of Japanese consumers would choose tuna caught by pole and line. Unfortunately, the fact that the MSC logo proves the fish is sustainable is not commonly known among Japanese consumers."

And that's the problem. Without consumer awareness, there is little incentive for fisheries to take the time or make the necessary investment to become MSC-certified.

Improving recognition

To tackle this, the MSC is now forming alliances with big retailers to market the benefits of sustainable fish.

At an eco-fair in Tokyo, the MSC's Rupert Howes proudly displays the results of months of planning.

Aeon, the biggest supermarket chain in Japan with more than 1,200 stores, has dedicated a third of its stand to displaying its MSC-certified products.

"In Japan, we've seen the growth in MSC-labelled products go from none three years ago to 160 individual labelled products now," says Rupert.

"Aeon is carrying over 20 products just on their own."

Right now, 8% of Japanese consumers recognise the MSC logo. To improve that, the council has made some changes.

The logo now spells out that the fish symbol stands for "Certified, Sustainable Seafood".

And this tag line is translated into the appropriate local language in every market where certified seafood is sold.

Dream fulfilled

Back in Yaizu, after six months, Mr Myojin has triumphed. His factory has just gained its MSC certificate.

A huge MSC logo adorns the exterior of the factory. The certificate itself is proudly displayed inside.

Mr Myojin is already discovering that it's not just good for fish, it's good for business.

"We've had around 30 inquiries from overseas," he says. "So we are currently exploring doing business with these contacts."

Fish has been fundamental to life in Japan for hundreds of years.

Mr Myojin invites Rupert Howes to accompany him to a local 2,000-year-old Shinto shrine. Dedicated to agriculture and fisheries, it's where local people have always come to pray for bountiful harvests, big catches and the safety of their fishermen.

Rupert pays his respects. "My prayer was for the world's oceans," he says, "and a hope that one day the Marine Stewardship Council can deliver its mission.

"And that in the future we can have plentiful bountiful supplies of sea food for future generations. It's as simple as that." (Marshall, Jill)

The British Medical Association (BMA) wants more Fairtrade and ethically sourced kit to be used.

It says at least a fifth of surgical instruments are made in northern Pakistan, where child labour is common.

Ministers said "exploitation of any kind was unacceptable" and the Department of Health was working with the BMA to develop practical guidance.

The BMA is hoping NHS staff will support the campaign - Fair Medical Trade - and push for a change in buying habits to ensure fairer pay and better working conditions for producers in developing countries.

'Risking lives'

The campaign says many surgical instruments are made in Pakistan where workers work in dangerous sweatshop conditions.

It says there is also evidence of child labour, with some workers as young as seven.

The campaign follows a BMA survey of 383 doctors which suggested while eight in 10 doctors were supportive of the NHS purchasing ethically-sourced goods, only one in 10 was aware of such equipment.

Dr Mahmood Bhutta, a surgeon and adviser on the BMA's Medical Fair and Ethical Trade Group, said more needed to be done to raise awareness.

"Some of the workers in the developing world making medical supplies bound for the NHS are exposed to hazardous working conditions where they risk serious injury and even death," he said.

"There is also evidence that children as young as seven are risking their lives to supply us with equipment to save British lives."

The BMA has launched a new website, www.fairmedtrade.org.uk , which provides information on the ethical procurement of medical supplies and how doctors can get involved.

The Organic Medical Clothing Company already sells Fairtrade textiles, such as bed linen and cotton gauze, to the NHS.

Spokesman Nik Powell said it helped farmers in developing countries provide freshwater wells, schools and healthcare.

A Department of Health spokesperson said: "We welcome the BMA's initiative to raise awareness of ethical trade issues across the medical profession.

"We are working hard with procurers to make sure they seek assurance and evidence that international labour standards are being maintained."(BBC)

For two years after the shooting, Israel officially closed the road and cordoned off the surrounding area for security purposes, leaving Nahed stranded and unable to reach his land. In 2003, the road was re-opened and Nahed was given permission by the Israeli authorities to return but found he was still unable to farm. Although he had nothing to do with the death of the soldier, residents of the settlement wanted to take his land from him in order to build a park and monument dedicated to the soldier’s memory. Nahed volunteered to give the settlers a portion of his land to build their monument on but was not prepared to surrender everything. These fields have been in his family for generations, serving as their primary source of income and are currently planted with over 500 olive trees.

Ongoing harassment

Despite Nahed’s offer, the settlers remained adamant that he should not be allowed to continue there. From then on, according to Nahed, the farm became a focal point for the settlers’ frustration. Over a series of attacks between 2003 and 2007, the settlers destroyed half of his olive trees and uprooted his grape vines, as well as destroying a retaining wall and his water irrigation network. Nahed appealed to the Israeli authorities for protection. They came out to investigate and documented the damage but still the vandalism kept occurring.

In 2007, Nahed, who was suffering financially from this ongoing harassment, began filing the paperwork to start legal proceedings against the perpetrators. Both sides entered arbitration, where the settlers eventually agreed to leave Nahed’s farm alone in exchange for a piece of his land on which they could build the soldier’s monument and visit at any time.

Getting back to turning a profit

Now Nahed says he is relieved because things on the farm are quiet and he can finally focus on production and getting back to turning a profit. In 2008 he joined the Aboud Agricultural Co-operative, which has just gained organic and Fairtrade certification for olive oil production through an Oxfam GB project, “Support to small and medium scale olive producers.” With funding from the European Commission, the Oxfam project aims to certify 30 Palestinian olive farming collectives as organic and Fairtrade. Through local partners, the Palestinian Farmers Union and Bethlehem University’s Fairtrade Development Centre, the farmers receive training on producing a quality product that can improve their livelihoods through the guarantee of a fair price. The project is also working with Zaytoun, an ethical trading company in the UK, to make sure the farmers’ products reach Fairtrade consumers abroad.Nahed says he is really excited about the Fairtrade certification. After years of lost income, he can now harvest his olives and produce his oil knowing that he will recover the costs and receive a fair market price.

In addition to the income he will earn from Fairtrade, Nahed says that he is grateful for the opportunity to have his product sold in European markets because he thinks it’s a way for Palestinians to be seen in a different light.

A sign of hope

Standing besides the stone monument the settlers erected on his land, Nahed says consumers should see his success as a sign of hope in a land where there is too much emphasis on the negative.

“In my case, we found a solution that everyone could live with. We should always look for these solutions,” he says. (Heske, Willow)

Environmentalists have long decried the destruction of Indonesia's rainforests, first for timber and more recently for palm oil.

The logging was a one time deal that mostly benefitted the country's corrupt elite and foreign corporations.

But does palm oil have the potential to generate new wealth for this nation of 250 million people?

There is one key fact that is often overlooked in the debate.

Rural middle class

Of the more than 7 million hectares in palm oil cultivation, nearly half is in the hands of smallholders, ordinary folk trying to better themselves and look after their families.

"We are seeing the emergence of a rural middle class," says John McCarthy of the Australian National University.

He's an economist and expert on the Indonesian palm oil industry:

"I was doing research in a town in Sumatra and I went to a local school and nine of the thirteen teachers had oil palm plantations."

Intrigued, McCarthy carried out a survey in several villages in the region. What he found startled him.

Villagers with 4 hectares (ten acres) or more were earning on average $12000 (£7775) a year. A second group with 2 hectares (5 acres) were earning much less -$2000 (£1300) a year - but still enough to provide financial security for themselves and their families.

Villagers without palm oil all fell below the poverty line.

The growth of this new middle class has profound implications for both prosperity and the prospects of furthering democracy in Indonesia.

Fairer

There are huge abuses. Plantations continue to be opened up that flout the laws. Corruption flourishes. Local communities are being marginalised, habitats terribly degraded. So what is the way forward?

In the often polarized debate about palm oil, it is rare to find converging views between activists and owners.

Sawit Watch is an Indonesian NGO that has campaigned for several years on the palm oil front.

Achmad Surambo is the executive director of Sawit Watch. When I meet him he is happy to make one point clear to me: palm oil in itself is not a bad thing for Indonesia. But the system needs to change.

Laws have to be enforced, people and the environment need to be protected, the land rights of local communities must be respected.

"We have to make the system more fair, accommodate the interests of farmers, communities and labourers," he says. "The system right now is tilted toward the big companies and that has to change."

Increase productivity

Lyman Agro is a small plantation company managing 60,000 hectares in West Kalimantan (Borneo). Steaven Halim of Lyman Agro points to the roads, schools and health clinics that have been built as proof of the company's commitment to its social responsibility.

"We have also helped (smallholders) build up cooperatives so they can handle their own business."

The government and the industry until recently talked about doubling the land area in production. Sensitive to negative press about deforestation, they are now talking instead about doubling the output in ten years from 20 million to 40 million tonnes to help meet world demand.

When I ask Steaven Halim whether this can be achieved with existing plantations he nods vigorously. "Yes, indeed. Indeed it can," he says.

The key for him is increasing productivity for smallholders. "If we can get them to 35 tonnes a hectare per year (it now is about 20 tonnes) we can do it."

That is not far off what Sawit Watch wants. It has called for a moratorium on expansion, as well as more support and better treatment of farmers and labourers.

Steaven Halim acknowledges there are "some bad guys, no doubt" in the industry but he says the time is now to talk.

"Let's sit down together and try to find the way out. People have to be fed." (Law, Bill)

And definitely not famine.

For years, President Mamadou Tandja denied there was any food crisis in Niger, even when images were broadcast of skeletal children too weak to brush away flies. Now that the military has ousted Tandja, aid agencies are speaking out, with good reason: The country is facing its worst food shortage in years.

"A window has finally opened and we need to take advantage of it," said Anne Boher, Niger spokeswoman for the U.N. Children's Fund.

With food supplies rapidly dwindling, humanitarian agencies must prepare and mobilize funds, she said. "And to do that, we need to talk about what's really happening. It's urgent that we act now."

Nearly half of Niger's 15 million people are facing food shortages this year because poor rainfall has thinned harvests, according to a leaked government report that said nearly 3 million of those people are expected to face "extreme" shortfalls.

The U.S.-funded Famine Early Warning Systems Network, which monitors food security, also predicts there will be "a serious food security emergency" in Niger this year. The number of malnourished children being admitted to feeding centers was 60 percent greater in January than the previous year, the group said. UNICEF is mobilizing help to at least 200,000 severely malnourished children alone.

Five years ago, Niger faced a similar crisis after crops were devastated first by locusts, then by drought, leaving a third of the country facing starvation. Foreign governments and aid groups rushed in food, although the U.N. said the crisis did not reach famine proportions.

Media coverage of the episode enraged Tandja, who lashed out at humanitarian agencies and opposition parties for allegedly fabricating "false propaganda" for political and economic gain. Several aid groups were expelled.

Since then, humanitarian workers here have tiptoed around discussions with government officials on the sensitive topics of food and nutrition, even when they concerned children.

"We weren't able to say there wasn't enough food," Boher told The Associated Press. "You couldn't talk about a food crisis because there wasn't supposed to be one. The word malnutrition was difficult to speak, but possible. Some ministers said it, but they took risks to do so."

Just days before the Feb. 18 coup, another U.N. employee recounted a regional governor recoiling in anger when asked about malnutrition. "He said, 'We have a good relationship' — between the government and the humanitarian community — 'why are you trying to spoil it?'" the employee said. She spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject.

Food has always been a deeply political topic in Niger, one of Africa's poorest nations. Perched on the southern edge of the Sahara, it has suffered cyclical drought for centuries, a phenomenon exacerbated by exploding population growth. Millions of people are chronically malnourished.

Niger's first post-independence coup came amid another food crisis in 1974, and "the soldiers who took power justified it by saying the president at the time could not feed the population," said journalist Abdoulaye Tiemogo, who runs the weekly independent, Le Canard Dechaine, French for "Wild Duck."

"That's why they're still afraid of words like famine," said Tiemogo, who spent three months in prison and seven in exile for publishing articles critical of Tandja.

During the 2005 crisis, Tandja's government felt humiliated, Boher said. "They thought people were trying to make it look like it was their fault that children were dying."

And "if you are unable to feed the population, as president, you are going to be at risk," Boher said. "Malnutrition has political implications. This is why Tandja wanted to deny there was a problem."

A government report in December on the country's latest food crisis may have only come to light because Tiemogo obtained a leaked copy. When his paper ran the story, the government suspended his press card and told him they had begun legal proceedings to shut his weekly down.

The failure to publish accurate statistics can have "dramatic consequences," Tiemogo said. "If you don't know what's really going on, you can't react to it, and it's the population that suffers. People die."

The International Federation of the Red Cross says many households have already exhausted food stocks, and within a few weeks will be unable to provide for themselves.

"We must act without delay to prevent a deterioration of the food situation, and pre-empt what will otherwise be disastrous consequences," said Angelika Kessler, a food expert for the IFRC in Dakar, Senegal.

One unanswered question is whether Niger's new junta will be as sensitive to the issue as Tandja's regime has been.

So far, the soldiers in charge are overwhelmed with the burden of governing and convincing diplomats — none of whom are calling for Tandja's return — that the coup was a good thing.

The impending food emergency has yet to be addressed. (Pitman, Todd)

She would spend the whole day sifting through the rubbish collecting the caps in return for a few hundred rupees - about $2.

Then in 2006, Sumitra was introduced to a microfinance initiative which provided her with a small loan to start her own business.

Four years on, she employs five women, and is the proud owner of six bottle-cap straightening machines which process 50kg of caps a day.

After paying the salaries of her employees, her business makes a small profit that Sumitra saves every month - a move that she says has transformed her life and that of her family.

Changing emphasis

Sumitra got the small loan from the Vikas Centre for Microfinance Development, one of the oldest clients of the non-profit organisation Women's World Banking (WWB) which helps lift women out of poverty.

They work closely with microfinance institutions, or MFIs, which provide a credit lifeline to millions of deprived people in some of the poorest countries of the world.

Now, after a few decades of providing small loans, they want more people to do the same as Sumitra and start saving.

"As the microfinance industry matures, we are seeing the beginning of a major shift from a focus on credit to an emphasis on savings," says Mary Ellen Iskenderian, the president of WWB.

"Loans or credit were the model for the first 30 years of microfinance. Savings is the future.

"We will continue to look for new and innovative ways to increase global access to savings products and services for the poor," she adds.

WWB is holding a series of leadership workshops across South Asia in conjunction with the MFIs that have been working hard to empower people in poorer societies, especially women.

WWB is planning to create innovative savings products and services, apart from small loans, for nearly seven million low-income people in Asia, Latin America and Africa during the next 10 years.

The initiative has just received the backing of the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation, which has pledged $8.5m (£5.5m) to the project.

Sri Lanka's war widows

Some individual partners of the network have already jumped on the savings bandwagon. Sri Lanka's Hatton National Bank (HNB) is one of them.

HNB has been at the forefront of Sri Lanka's micro-loan and agricultural loan industry for more than 20 years. But now it is also looking at changing its product and clientele.

The bank wants to help tens of thousands of war widows - women whose husbands were killed in the conflict between the government and the recently-defeated Tamil Tigers.

HNB is targeting these women as potential clients, as soon as resettlement is completed in the former war zone.

Here, too, the emphasis has shifted much more to saving, says HNB's Vishva Gunawardena.

"What we have been doing is opening up a savings account for the customers to make their deposits."

Greater control

Women are being encouraged to take more control, not just of their savings, but of the way the microcredit system is actually run.

The fact that the industry has a majority of women clients should also be reflected in the leadership, says the president of WWB, Mary Ellen Iskenderian.

Recognising the importance of empowering women, the US has also begun integrating women's issues into its Global Health Initiative and Global Food Security Initiative.

In a recent speech, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said she recognised the need to make women's empowerment a foreign-policy priority.

"It is why we are launching women's entrepreneurial efforts in Latin America. It is why we are working with religious leaders in Afghanistan and Pakistan to increase access to information about family planning and preventive health care," she said.

"We are doing all of these things because we have seen that when women and girls have the tools to stay healthy and the opportunity to contribute to their families' well-being, they flourish and so do the people around them."

Saving pays

Back in Ahmedabad, Sumitra says her life has been completely changed, thanks to the business she now runs and the money she has managed to put away.

Sumitra's husband became ill during the 2006 monsoon, and was in desperate need of medication.

Without her income, Sumitra would not have been able to afford the medicines that saved his life.

The business has also enabled Sumitra to help her son get started in his own business, while her daughter is in her first year of college, studying finance. (Pathirana, Sinhala)

The region is said to compare with the well-documented "great Pacific garbage patch".

Karen Lavender Law of the Sea Education Association told the BBC that the issue of plastics had been "largely ignored" in the Atlantic.

She announced the findings of a two-decade-long study at the Ocean Sciences Meeting in Portland, US.

The work is the conclusion of the longest and most extensive record of plastic marine debris in any ocean basin.

Scientists and students from the SEA collected plastic and marine debris in fine mesh nets that were towed behind a research vessel.

The nets dragged along were half-in and half-out of the water, picking up debris and small marine organisms from the sea surface.

The researchers carried out 6,100 tows in areas of the Caribbean and the North Atlantic - off the coast of the US. More than half of these expeditions revealed floating pieces of plastic on the water surface.

These were pieces of low-density plastic that are used to make many consumer products, including plastic bags.

Dr Lavender Law said that the pieces of plastic she and her team picked up in the nets were generally very small - up to 1cm across.

"We found a region fairly far north in the Atlantic Ocean where this debris appears to be concentrated and remains over long periods of time," she explained.

"More than 80% of the plastic pieces we collected in the tows were found between 22 and 38 degrees north. So we have a latitude for [where this] rubbish seems to accumulate," she said.

"That's a maximum that is comparable with the Great Pacific Garbage Patch," said Dr Lavender Law.

But she pointed out that there was not yet a clear estimate of the size of the patches in either the Pacific or the Atlantic.

"You can think of it in a similar way [to the Pacific Garbage Patch], but I think the word 'patch' can be misleading. This is widely dispersed and it's small pieces of plastic," she said.

The impacts on the marine environment of the plastics were still unknown, added the researcher.

"But we know that many marine organisms are consuming these plastics and we know this has a bad effect on seabirds in particular," she told BBC News.

He told BBC News: "We don't know how much is consumed by living organisms; we don't have enough data.

"I think this is a big target for the next decade - a global network to observe plastics in the ocean."(Gill, Victoria)

“It’s important to look at how poverty affects children’s lives and how we can address it,” Sigrid Kaag, UNICEF regional director for the Middle East and North Africa, said at a gathering to discuss the new study. “A child who lives in poverty rarely gets a second chance at education or a healthy start in life.”

Mushira Khatab, Egypt’s family and population state minister, said at the gathering: “The government must take children into consideration when it comes to formulating policies aimed at ending poverty. Investing in the nation’s children can produce good results. Education will get these children out of poverty.”

She called on the government to introduce special laws for the protection of children.

Rural areas worse

The poverty rate among children in rural areas was more than double that in urban areas, and much higher in the south than in the north, according to the study. The south, known as Upper Egypt, had the highest incidence of poverty among children - 45.3 percent.

Girls and boys were equally vulnerable to poverty and deprivation of rights, but girls in rural areas were the least likely to attend school or complete their education, thus increasing the likelihood of them being poor in adulthood.

The study recommended that policies be directly aimed at children to alleviate their poverty.

“If we’re to break the cycle of poverty, it’s key that children are at the heart of development policies,” Kaag said. (IRIN)

E-waste -- a term describing electronics including phones, printers, televisions, refrigerators and other appliances -- grows globally by 40 million tonnes a year. Toxins are emitted when it is improperly burned by scavengers looking for valuable components, such as copper and gold.

A report released in Bali on Monday by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) predicted that by 2020, e-waste from computers would grow by up to 400 percent from 2007 levels in China and South Africa.

"This report gives new urgency to establishing ambitious, formal and regulated processes for collecting and managing e-waste via the setting up of large, efficient facilities in China," said Achim Steiner, executive director of UNEP.

"China is not alone in facing a serious challenge. India, Brazil, Mexico and others may also face rising environmental damage and health problems if e-waste recycling is left to the vagaries of the informal sector," he said in the report.

The report, co-authored by EMPA of Switzerland, specialty materials group Umicore and the United Nations University, said that the United States is the biggest producer of e-waste, creating around 3 million tonnes a year.

Close behind is China, which produces around 2.3 million tonnes domestically and is where a lot of the developed world's e-waste is sent, EMPA said.

EMPA is the research institute for material science and technology of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology.

ILLEGAL SHIPMENTS

The study predicted that mobile phone waste in China would be about seven times higher than 2007 levels by 2020, while in India it would be about 18 times higher.

The report advocated transporting some e-waste, such as circuit boards and batteries, from poorer countries to OECD-level countries better equipped to dispose of them properly.

Indonesian environment minister Gusti Muhammad Hatta said in a speech on Monday that Indonesia was vulnerable to illegal trafficking in hazardous waste.

Jim Puckett from the U.S.-based NGO Basel Action Network, which tracks illegal trafficking in e-waste, said Indonesian authorities recently discovered a shipment of nine 40-foot shipping containers of e-waste that had been sent from the U.S. state of Massachusetts.

"They were full of hand-stacked cathode ray tubes, computer monitors, basically. It was old junk that people wanted to get rid of because everyone wants flat-screens now," he said.

He said Indonesian authorities sent the shipment back.

If properly managed, though, e-waste represented a business opportunity, said Konrad Osterwalder, rector of the United Nations University.

"This report outlines smart new technologies and mechanisms which, combined with national and international policies, can transform waste into assets, creating new businesses with decent green jobs.

"In the process, countries can help cut pollution linked with mining and manufacturing, and with the disposal of old devices," he said. (Creagh, Sunanda)

"We contracted an agronomist to train the beneficiaries of the six bases on the soil content and ratio, management of the sacks and how they could undertake the urban farming in a sustainable manner," he said. "I believe that such projects encourage the interest of other groups, such as banks, to invest in these people, thus enriching their life in general."

Simon Kokoyo, director of Ongoza Njia - a network of at least 150 community-based-organizations - told IRIN most of the groups working with COOPI on the urban farming project were identified through the network.

"When ready for consumption, a sack containing vegetables such as sukuma wiki [kale], spinach and capsicum can feed one household for at least two months," Kokoyo said. "Right now water is the biggest challenge for this project... sometimes the water is scarce and this can be a problem."

Learning by doing

Stephen Ajengo, secretary of the Juja Self-Help Group, is one of the group's members who received a month's training in urban farming at an environmental and farming institute in Nairobi.

"I learnt how to take care of the plants, the spacing required while planting and the layering of the various types of soil required per sack," Ajengo said. "One has to know even the amount of water required by the plants; during the initial period after planting, one needs at least 40 litres per day; this amount reduces as the plants take root until watering is just about once per week."

Susan Wanjiru, a member of Vision Sisters, another of the bases identified by COOPI for the urban farming project, said this was the first time she had tried planting in a sack.

"Previously, our women's group has been involved in urban farming but we mostly planted vegetables on small plots of land; now we are trying out planting in sacks. I hope I will be able to plant up to three sacks outside my house once this project is completed," Wanjiru said.

She said the project had helped her group expand the number of those engaged in urban farming. "Previously we were just 14 members; because sacks take up little space, we have extended invitations to other women and school-children to join us, this way many families have access to affordable vegetables.

"You know there are times one does not have even a shilling in the pocket but with a sack of vegetables one's family does not need to sleep hungry; all you do is just pluck a few leaves of spinach, get a capsicum and even coriander and you have something to go with ugali [maizemeal]." (IRIN)

The deal with the Justice and Equality Movement (Jem) includes a framework for further talks, and the cancellation of death sentences for 100 fighters.

It is being seen as an important step towards peace, though the other main rebel group has refused to enter talks.

The seven-year war between forces loyal to the government and rebels in Darfur has lost intensity in recent years.

But the UN estimates 300,000 died in the worst years of the conflict. Some 2.5 million people are still displaced.

'Heal the war'

The agreement reached on Saturday in the Chadian capital N'Djamena, according to a Jem spokesman and an aid to Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, starts with an immediate ceasefire, but is not a permanent peace accord.

It includes a framework for further talks, during which issues such as the sharing of power and wealth, and the return of internally displaced people and refugees will be discussed, possibly this week.

Mr Bashir said he would cancel death sentences handed out to Jem prisoners and free 30% of those he had pardoned immediately.

More than 100 men were sentenced to death by hanging after being found guilty of taking part in a Jem attack on Omdurman in May 2008, in which the government said more than 200 people were killed.

"Today, we signed an agreement between the government and Jem in N'Djamena, and in N'Djamena we heal the war in Darfur," the president said in a speech broadcast on state television.

Jem spokesman Ahmed Hussein said the deal would be formally signed in Qatar's capital, Doha, on Tuesday.

"It's a significant step for peace in Darfur," he told the Associated Press. "It is a considerable achievement for both parties."

The BBC's James Copnall in Khartoum says the Jem is the most significant of the many rebel groups taking part in peace talks in Qatar, which aim to reach a final agreement by 15 March.

The Sudanese official in charge of the Darfur peace process, Ghazi Saleh al-Din, said other groups could also be included.

"It does not exclude other movements," he said. "I think we can try to emulate the agreement which we signed with Jem and try to speed up the process so that we can try to a final agreement as soon as possible."

When conflict broke out in Darfur early in 2003, there were just two major rebel groups - the Jem and the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA).

The insurgents later splintered into an array of competing factions.

The Jem has been the most significant fighting force in Darfur, armed with weapons that Sudan says come from neighbouring Chad. (BBC)

Jeff Hubbard, 53, of Hackney, east London, took the images for an exhibition by homeless charity Crisis.

In one picture, William is shown with his hands in the pockets of his jeans, and close-up with his arms folded in front of his chest in another.

The prince also took pictures of Mr Hubbard under the guidance of celebrity photographer Rankin.

The photos were taken last month at Rankin's studios in Kentish Town, north London, before William went to New Zealand, his first official tour on behalf of the Queen.

They appear over 14 pages in the latest edition of Hello! magazine.

'Common bond'

Mr Hubbard has turned his life around since he found himself homeless after his business and marriage failed and he turned to drugs.

He told the magazine: "When Prince William arrived, I sensed he was a little nervous too.

"I showed him the camera we were going to use and once the shoot started we chatted away."

He added: "I was chuffed as I knew I had captured something unique in my photographs. I still can't believe I did it."

In December, William spent a night sleeping rough for homeless charity Centrepoint, of which he is a patron.

The prince said in literature to accompany the exhibition: "The diptych that I have created with Jeff, under Rankin's inspirational guidance, is a reminder of the way in which all of us - whatever path our lives have taken - are ultimately neighbours and share a common bond.

"Jeff's experience of homelessness was an isolating and traumatic one but now, with the help of Crisis, his life has hope and purpose again." (BBC)

As part of her initiative, she stressed the need to make healthy food more accessible. I met one couple who are trying to do just that, by running a mobile farmers' market in Virginia.

It is a sight that makes people stop and stare.

As Mark Lilly's big white bus heads along rundown city streets, the slogans painted on its side are as colourful as its owner: "Feeding the community one stop at a time. Support local farmers. Get local produce. Get on the bus, Gus!"

Virginia businessman Mark Lilly bought his 23-year-old bus on the internet. The day I joined him for the ride, he and his wife Suzi began at home, packing the aisles with organic produce they had sourced from local farms.

Baskets of colourful apples and squashes sat next to fistfuls of greens: kale, spinach, cabbage. And there was home-made apple pie.

The specialised farmers' market is becoming a colourful staple of American city life.

Mrs Obama presided over the opening of Washington's latest market in September, just a stone's throw from the White House.

What makes this venture different is Mr Lilly's determination to focus on "food deserts", those blighted urban neighbourhoods where fast food is the rule, and fresh produce very much the exception.

Urban blight

Much of the city of Richmond, Virginia, is historic and impressive. But as we drive into the district of Church Hills, the couple talk about the damage done by crack use.

We pass liquor stores and check-cashing outlets and row after row of boarded up windows.

We stop in the empty parking lot of an abandoned supermarket, over the road from a huddle of drunks, and wait for customers to come.

Mark Lilly is a man on a mission.

Cowboy hat jammed firmly on his head, he bursts with enthusiasm as he woos folks off the street: "This is spaghetti squash. You can make it go for a family of six. They're the freshest eggs, got them this morning. Here, take these packets of seeds, get the kids to start a garden."

In between sales, he sits in a big Amish rocking chair out on the sidewalk, looking for new custom.

It would be easier, he says, to set up at a farmers' market where customers tend to have money to spare.

He gets his steadiest income from his weekly delivery of fresh food boxes direct to customers' homes, known as a CSA scheme, or Community Supported Agriculture.

Displayed prominently in the bus window is a sign saying that he can take food stamps in payment. But still, he says, he is running a business, not a charity. And his produce costs more than fast food.

A lot of people say they do not have the time to cook. Or they just do not know how. "As Americans we don't have a culture of food really. It's fast food. We subcontract everything out," Mr Lilly says.

And he tells it like he sees it, saying that it is all about choice.

"Folks here are addicted to bad food and first you've got to wean them off it before you can sell them the good stuff," he says.

He enjoys parking in front of fast food stores, just to make a point. But then he says, he will often have people leave after browsing.

"Then I'll see them go buy lottery tickets or liquor. That's frustrating," he says.

Having a ball

On this day, those who get on the bus, seem genuinely appreciative.

Rita Monford was walking by, telling her 11-year old granddaughter there was nowhere to buy any decent fresh fruit.

Ten minutes on the bus, and her shopping bag was full: "I got cabbage, I got squash, I got tomatoes, I got apples. We're going to have a ball!"

For some, it is more than shopping - it is a family experience.

Mark and Suzi Lilly give out cooking advice and recipe leaflets along with the fruit and veg.

And Mr Lilly brings in regulars to his vintage bus with thoroughly modern marketing techniques. From his mobile phone, he posts to his Facebook and Twitter accounts about what is in stock and where he is parked.

It is only one venture, but so far it is succeeding. Mark and Suzi Lilly have already bought a second bus.

He would like a whole fleet. But his success depends on community support and on those who have less deciding that the food he sells is worth the extra expense. (Thomas, Philippa)

His testimony marked a day of awareness for the many young boys and girls officials say are kidnapped, drugged, raped and mutilated while being forced to fight wars in Africa, Asia and South America.

Lucien Badjoko, 26, spoke of his boyhood fighting from 1997 to 2002 -- a slice of his country's decades of civil war -- at a conference run by the French campaign group ECI.

At the age of 12 in the war-scarred Kivu region of the Democratic Republic of Congo, "I ran away from home, for various reasons. One day I found myself with a gun in my hand," he said.

"There were kids of 10, 12 years old, being trained like adults... Then it was time to go into combat," he added. He would not give further details.

Daytime was spent learning how to assemble and fire guns and in the evenings "they indoctrinated us" in the cause against Mobutu Sese Seko, Congo's former leader, he said.

The French government and the United Nations say there are between 250,000 and 300,000 child soldiers worldwide, many in Africa, but also in Asian countries including Sri Lanka and Afghanistan.

"We are facing a real scourge," the foreign ministry said in a statement marking the International Day against the Use of Child Soldiers.

"These children are recruited not only for fighting, they are also victims of sexual violence and mutilation."

Francois Zimeray, France's ambassador for human rights, told reporters he had seen "tangible results" in freeing thousands of child soldiers in countries including Congo, Burundi and Nepal.

France is part of a working group on child soldiers in the UN Security Council and countries were "financing individual programmes to demobilise child soldiers," he said.

"They need psychological support... and sometimes they need protection."

Badjoko was demobilised at the end of five years of conflict in 2002 and was able to swap his weapons training for school and eventually university in France, where he is now studying law.

He would not talk about his time at the front. As teenagers, he and his fellow soldiers "had lots of friends who died around us," he said. "It's easy to get in, but difficult to get out." (AFP)

But then, women were kept in the shadows: they were sidelined by a patriarchal state, which limited their education, their job opportunities and political rights... until now.

"For a long time, us women have been excluded - it was one of the dark legacies of the colonial model," the recently appointed Justice Minister Nilda Copa told the BBC at her office, wearing the quintessential Andean indigenous outfit of bowler hat, shawl and flouncy skirt.

"I remember my mother didn't know how to read and write, neither did my grandmother, because of colonial remnants, not because they didn't want to learn," Ms Copa says.

She started very young as a trade unionist, when she was only 16, because she felt a drastic change was needed and that was the only platform where women "had some voice".

And that change seems to have arrived. Today, posters proclaiming the slogans of female Bolivian heroes such as indigenous rebel Bartolina Sisa and independence icon Juana Azurduy plaster the walls of several ministries.

That shows the fervour felt in the Bolivia of President Evo Morales, who seems to be changing things not only for the country's indigenous majority, but also for its women who have won a political voice.

Today women are involved in running the country as never before. Mr Morales began his second mandate last week with a cabinet reshuffle complying with the gender parity stated in the new constitution he pushed for.

Now the new cabinet has 10 men and 10 women, three of them indigenous. Indian women like Ms Copa were once either peasants or servants.

"There used to be a lot of racism and machismo. There is still some, but now that structure is changing thanks to brother Evo Morales," she says.

"Today, for example, there are no illiterate women, but women with enough capacity to develop activities at the same level as men. But the fight has been harsh and long."

Her voice trails off and she focuses on a picture of her and Mr Morales from the times when she was a member of the assembly which wrote Bolivia's new constitution.

Chacha warmi equality

For Mr Morales, this is something historic as it is the first time the Andean nation has women forming half of the cabinet to fulfil gender equality.

"One of my dreams has come true - half the cabinet seats are held by women," Mr Morales said at the presidential palace on Saturday. "This is a homage to my mother, my sister and my daughter."

Mr Morales said that since his early days as a leader of the coca trade union, he always worked towards getting women into decision-making posts based on the chacha warmi, a concept that in the local Aymara indigenous culture means that men and women are complementary in an egalitarian way.

But another sign that women's political influence is on the rise in a country with a strong patriarchal culture is that now women occupy an unprecedented 30% of seats in Bolivia's new legislative branch.

One of them is Gabriela Montano, a senator who represents the eastern city of Santa Cruz - Bolivia's opposition heartland - on behalf of Mr Morales's party, the Movement Towards Socialism (MAS).

"This is the fruit of the women's fight: the tangible proofs of this new state, of this new Bolivia are the increasing participation of the indigenous peoples and the increasing participation of women in the decision-making process of this country," Ms Montano told the BBC.

Ms Montano was the subject of several attacks during her stint as the government's envoy to Santa Cruz, and last year she was kept at a secret location as a safety precaution after she was threatened by opposition groups.

Being a woman, she seemed like an easy target in a country where, according to local women's right groups, seven out of 10 women suffer some sort of domestic violence. But she has never backed down.

"The awakening of women has been brewing for a while. Women have been a key element in the consolidation of this process of change led by President Morales, from the rallies, the protests, the fights. Now, they will be a key element in affairs of national interest," Ms Montano adds.

However, while change for women is under way, for some there is still a long way to go until full equality is achieved.

"Not long ago, 10 years ago, nobody talked about women in power in this country, that was unimaginable," explains Katia Uriona, of the women's advocacy group Coordinadora de la Mujer.

"And even if I applaud all of these victories, I am aware this is not enough. Now we have to see if all of this is translated into something concrete that will truly change the gender face of this country."(Schipani, Andres)

Mohamed Mahamud, a businessman who is part of the group, told IRIN they had decided not to wait for outside help "while our brothers and sisters are suffering".

He added: "We don't have to wait and say we don’t have much. Every little thing helps."

Mahamud said if the contributions continued, they would address other needs, such as food and medicine.

Abdullahi Salad, a displaced person and one of the beneficiaries, told IRIN his camp had depended on water trucking by an international aid agency but this had stopped in January.

"Since 1 January, we have not had any water until this local group started delivering it five days ago," Salad said.

He said that Bashi camp, with more than 600 families, had received regular water deliveries over the past five days.

Aweys said they had funds to deliver water to the camps for 20 days. "I am hopeful that we will get more donations from Somalis to continue and expand [distribution]."

He said his group was not affiliated with any of the forces fighting in Mogadishu.

New offensive rumoured

Mogadishu has been a battleground for troops loyal to the government of President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed and two Islamist armed opposition groups, including the militant Al-Shabab group, which controls much of the south and centre of the country.

Meanwhile, people continue to flee Mogadishu due to fears of renewed clashes, according to the Mogadishu-based Elman Human Rights Organization.

Ali Sheikh Yassin, the deputy chairman, told IRIN many more people were leaving the city because of reports that the government was about to start a new offensive against the insurgents.

"There have been troop movements on both sides and we are all waiting for this new offensive to begin," he said. “It is fear that is driving the current exodus." (IRIN)

Radioactive material from a military base in Latvia is thought to have been thrown into Swedish waters.

For many the biggest shock is that the Swedish government may have known at the time and done nothing about it.

The partly enclosed Baltic Sea is known as one of the most polluted seas in the world.

But now it seems it was also used as a dumping ground for Russian nuclear waste and chemical weapons.

According to a report on Swedish television, Russian boats sailed out at night to dump barrels of radioactive material, from a military base in Latvia, into Swedish waters.

And even though the Swedish government at the time reportedly knew this, no action was taken to find the waste.

The current government in Stockholm now wants the politicians who were then in charge to explain why they did nothing to find the barrels.

The Baltic Sea is semi-enclosed, so it takes a long time to flush out toxins. This makes it particularly vulnerable to pollution.

And after years of untreated waste from Russia's cities and heavy industries, scientists say that the Baltic is in danger of becoming a dead sea.

Next week high-ranking politicians from those countries bordering the Baltic, including Russia, are due to attend a summit in Helsinki to discuss how to save it.

But if reports about Soviet nuclear waste being dumped prove true, then Russia will have even more accusations of pollution to answer.(McGuinness, Damien)