The problem is particularly pronounced in underdeveloped food-deficit areas of the far- and mid-west regions where more than 27 percent of children are acutely malnourished, Pokhrel said.

“In such areas, there is a need to provide food rations which include fortified super flour also for the mothers,” he said.

Health experts say poor maternal health among Nepali women is directly contributing to child malnutrition; nearly a quarter of the country’s estimated 14.5 million women are malnourished, afflicted particularly by a low body mass index.

Meanwhile, nutrition workers from NGOs say the government has not done enough to educate women and health workers about nutrition at a local level, especially in the most remote areas.

“The government has not done anything vital. It has even failed to raise awareness about basic education about nutrition,” Som Paneru, a nutrition expert and executive director of health and education NGO, the Nepalese Youth Opportunity Foundation (NYOF), told IRIN.

Agency support

Officials say the World Bank, UNICEF and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) recently completed a nutritional gap analysis to assess child and maternal nutrition needs.

The findings are to be integrated into the Nepal Health Sector Programme, which aims to expand access to and the use of essential health care services, and is supported by the World Bank and the UK Department for International Development (DFID).

The first phase of the programme will expire in July this year and the Ministry of Health and Population is drawing up plans for its implementation over the next five years.

“The World Bank now is bringing significant funding which hasn’t been previously specifically for nutrition within the national health sector plan. So we know the interventions that will work,” Gillian Mellsop, UNICEF country representative in Nepal, told IRIN.

However, officials say they have yet to sort out how efforts will be coordinated across the relevant ministries, while challenges lie ahead in implementing programmes at the local level.

“We still do not have specific planning for community-level programmes and we have not been able to make targeted area-focused programmes,” said Pokhrel. (IRIN)

"Trafficking rates have come down,,,and convictions are up," Ego Uzoezie, Commissioner of Women Affairs in Anambra State Ministry told IRIN, "but the progress is not as high as we'd like when we compare it to the efforts the government has put in."

Nigeria uses the UN definition of trafficking, which includes recruiting, transporting, harbouring or receiving people through use of force or coercion, abduction, or fraud; and exploiting a person in a position of vulnerability for forced labour or servitude.

How many men, women and children are trafficked each year in Nigeria is unknown – the only figures on record are the number of people law enforcement officers have intercepted since the National Agency Prohibiting Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) was set up in 2004.

Over 4,000 victims were intercepted between 2004 and the end of 2009, with the number rising each year to reach 1,000 in 2007 and 1,269 in 2008, according to NAPTIP.

Most children trafficked and smuggled in Nigeria are sent by families to work as domestic labourers, with a minority used as street beggars, or sold into marriage or to illegal orphanages, according to NAPTIP.

Families pay middlemen to take children across the borders to West African destinations like Togo and Cameroon, or north to Saudi Arabia, said Simon Chuzie Egede, the head of NAPTIP.

The UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) child protection specialist in Abuja, Sharon Oladiji, said poverty was still the main reason families pushed children to leave home to find work.

"I was sold by my mother because of a 20,000 naira [US$137] debt she owed a yam-seller. Later I was forced into early marriage by him [the seller]," said Grace Ikede (not her real name), from Rivers State. She was lucky - the man she married helped her trace her family when he heard her story. "We are on the look-out for the seller, but he is on the run," she told IRIN.

Convictions up

The government has been making progress in the fight against traffickers and smugglers, partly because the Ministry of Women's Affairs, NAPTIP, the police, immigration services, and child protection agencies such as UNICEF, have started working closely together, Egede told IRIN. Prosecutions have steadily risen since 2006, with 67 traffickers convicted between 2004 and the end of 2009, UNICEF said.

On the US State Department list rating countries' efforts to eliminate the worst forms of trafficking, Nigeria rose from tier-two to tier-one status.

"This is a clear sign Nigeria has made progress in preventing trafficking, punishing traffickers and protecting children," UNICEF's Oladiji told IRIN.

In 2009 the government also set up a Victims Trust Fund, through which assets confiscated from traffickers are transferred to victims. NAPTIP said so far the assets of two traffickers in Sokoto State had been seized.

But prosecuting traffickers was still "achingly slow", Oladiji said, with dozens of cases awaiting trial. A 2009 report on Nigeria's justice system noted that detainees could wait up to nine years for conviction. NAPTIP's southern zonal coordinator, Ijeoma Okoronkwo, said it would take state-by-state reform of the prosecution system to speed up the rate.

Next steps

Oladiji told IRIN that preventing trafficking would have to be stepped up in view of the sluggish prosecution service, and stressed that this must be a community effort, not a family-by-family attempt. UNICEF has been working with communities in at-risk border areas to encourage them to protect vulnerable families from turning to child smugglers.

A human rights lawyer in Anambra State, Ben Nwosu, told IRIN that punishments should be made more severe to deter traffickers. "The fines and jail terms given to those convicted and sentenced are still not enough compared to the inhumane treatment that the traffickers subject their victims to."

NAPTIP is evaluating the impact of its recent efforts – including the Victims Trust Fund, among other tools – to better prioritize its funding, Egede told IRIN.

To attract more funding for the fight, NAPTIP and all other agencies involved should develop clear action plans on prevention and prosecution, so that donors could peg funding to the initiative, UNICEF's Oladiji told IRIN.

The governments of Italy, Switzerland, Finland and the United States have recently supported anti-trafficking activities in Nigeria. (IRIN)

India has taken its the first step towards redemption of promises made to women 62 years ago when it attained freedom.

It was a promise of living with dignity, opportunity, self pride, fearlessness.

Today India awakens to the fact that a nation, like a human body, can not be free if it is torturing half of itself. Mutilating, destroying, deriding, wishing away. No such nation can ever be healthy.

Today we may have opened the door towards a healthy nation.

India may have unleashed forces who could bring succour to her poor, her deprived, her unsung and unheard.

And yet we might lose our way yet again.

Many men will ask: "But they will only think of their own gender. What about us?"

Well what about the men? What about all those men, who even given the opportunity, did not ask, "What about the women?"

Not once in 62 years.

Instead, some of them plundered our bodies and souls, and dishonoured us, made us afraid of further sanctions. For the women are too often the loot - our bodies, our minds, our thoughts, our wombs.

"But they will be the rubber stamps of their men," the men cry.

So what, even if some are? What are the men today but rubber stamps of their own deviousness, greed and lust for power?

"But aren't women as greedy and corrupt as the men," the men will cry.

Yes some are, trapped alone in the gutters called the male corridors of power, tutored by a patriarchal society that equates selfish self-interest and greed as cleverness.

And even if they are like that, it will change nothing from the status quo. Except that the women WILL be in.

And then there will be a possibility that the women will not play the game by the same rules.

That they will, in a group, be able to let their instincts of co-operation, inclusiveness and caring, of nurturing and problem solving prevail.

And that they will at last get down to the brass tacks of solving this country's fundamental problems, just like they have in their homes or in their work places for ever.

Today might not change our world.

But it will be a first step.

The road is long. The women need to be chosen, trained, tutored, equipped - not in corrupt ways but in governance, in delivery of benefits and empowerment to the last in line, in transparency. And in not succumbing to the air that prevails.

A new, liberating journey for Indian women has now begun.(BBC)

According to the latest official data in August 2009, the unemployment rate is 7.87 percent, but it hovered around 10 percent until 2008.

And with more than half the country's 245 million people living on less than US$2 a day, according to the World Food Programme (WFP), many quit school early to contribute to the family income.

"The good thing about the Learning Farm is that it will lead to the creation of livelihoods for people living in the area, because the young people at the farm will teach the surrounding community how to practise organic farming," Catharina Dwihastarini, a project manager with the UN Development Programme (UNDP) in Indonesia, told IRIN. UNDP has provided a grant of $40,000.

About 40 percent of the young men trained at the Learning Farm either go on to start their own organic farms, teach organic farming and environmental education, or are employed by commercial farms.

Escaping poverty

Poverty in Indonesia is largely a rural phenomenon, with agrarian households accounting for about 57 percent of the nation's poor, according to the World Bank. Three out of five Indonesians still live in rural areas and farming is their main occupation.

Desperate to escape poverty, villagers migrate to the city, many disappearing into the slums.

The Learning Farm's director, Jiway Tung, a Chinese-American from New York, is trying to create a new interest in farming by using ancient Indonesian organic methods.

"It's not bringing in something foreign; it's reconnecting and re-envisioning," said Tung.

Most Indonesian farmers, however, still use fertilisers and pesticides on their vegetables that are forbidden in other countries.

Although this is still common practice, organic farming is slowly making an appearance in the archipelago. The Indonesian market for organic produce might be small, but there are opportunities: the Farm's customers include the well-heeled in Jakarta and it is also negotiating with a large supermarket chain to sell its vegetables.

Such deals will make it attractive for young people to become organic farmers. While the organic field that Maghfur tends is already feeding 30 children in the orphanage, his goal now is to grow more vegetables, so they can also be sold to the community.

"We want to create agents of change, so that they take what they learned back to the streets, to their villages," said Tung. (IRIN)

A health care worker is questioning one of them about their social and economic background.

He writes down an increasingly grim litany.

Education - none, job - none, children - many, rooms in mud hut - too few.

It is clear that these are people in need.

In Malawi, one in eight adults are infected with HIV.

But drugs alone may not be the answer to this deadly scourge.

Care in the community

In Neno, a remote area in southern Malawi, poverty and HIV are both rampant.

There are clutches of straw roofed huts, neglected villages and abandoned crops.

People here are obviously very poor. It is the recipe for a major health crisis, one that is far beyond the resources of the government to cope with.

But in the last three years, they have joined forces with Partners In Health (PIH), a social enterprise dedicated to providing quality health care to the world's poorest people.

PIH believes that social factors are as important as medical ones.

They do not just offer medical care, but practical help as well. They argue that the poor need food, homes, work and education in order to stay healthy, not just tablets and surgery.

This means that a lot of their work does not take place in hospitals, but out in the community.

New life

Edna Joseph was taken in by PIH after she was diagnosed with HIV. Tiny and hunched, she is wasted by the disease and moves with difficulty.

Seventeen-year-old Edna was married at the age of 13 and has two small children.

Her husband was adult when she met him.

After being diagnosed with HIV and suffering abuse from both husband and in-laws, she was turned out of the marital home.

She returned to her mother's home, but her parents were in no position to support her.

PIH was prescribed anti-retroviral drugs to control the illness, as well as given the food she needed to make the medicines effective.

PIH also built her a tin-roofed house with two bedrooms so she could start to re-build a life for herself and her children.

"When I moved into my new house," said Edna, "I sang a song to say I am so happy not to have to sleep in a house with a leaking roof any more."

Food enterprise

PIH also helps patients get jobs.

But with little formal employment, they have to do this by giving them grants to set up their own businesses.

In a nearby town, a group of 15 women recently set up their own restaurant with the support of PIH.

They are former prostitutes, and all are HIV positive.

The women, all on anti-retroviral medication, wanted a business, not only to provide money to live on, but to give them a sense of pride in themselves.

Good food is essential for HIV positive patients, but the local diet is generally poor.

The staple food is "sima", a maize flour mixed with water.

Its nutritional value is negligible and PIH has started programmes to encourage people to both grow and eat a wide variety of vegetables.

But growing vegetables takes a lot of water, a scarce commodity. One of the projects here failed simply because it lacked a proper well.

Successful business

The restaurant, named "Peace", has been a tremendous success.

The rota is in place, Florence has a new right-hand woman named Ivy and, most importantly of all, the cooking is delicious.

The women are already turning a profit but their goal is even more ambitious. They want to be self-sustaining by the end of the month.

Soon after that, they hope to see their turnover top $200 a day - a staggering amount in Malawi.

Pride and hope

The investment PIH has put into Malawi has been enormous. They have built two brand new district hospitals equipped with wards and operating theatres.

The money comes from a partnership between Partners in Health and the Malawian government, and the running of the hospital will become the sole responsibility of the government within the next five years.

But the best and the most visible return on their investment is Edna's shy smile.

The medication has saved her life, but her new house, decent food and the prospect that soon she may have a job have given her back her pride and hope.(Farrell, Cassie)

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)