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China's family planning policy enforced with heavy-handed tactics

"Boseley, the Guardian's health editor,"

Family planning leading to a population decrease in Bangladesh

Women in Bangladesh are contributing to the population decrease by choosing to have fewer children

Family-planning officials say their research indicates that 70% of women want to have two babies or more.

Government investment worth £50bn would convince private companies that power from the Sahara solar scheme is feasible and attractive option, expert says

The pioneering new president of the Indian Ocean nation announces plans for his country - under grave threat from climate change - to go carbon-neutral in a decade

Concerns over immigration and security have prompted the US government to erect more than 1,000km of fencing along the Mexican border. But the contentious plan which cuts through private property in some areas has sparked anger among some US homeowners and farmers. Al Jazeera's Nick Spicer reports from Brownsville, Texas, along the Mexican border.

Dozens of baby girls in southern China have reportedly been taken from parents who broke family-planning laws, and then sold for adoption overseas.

"Factsheet Debt Relief Under the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative September 22, 2009 The Joint IMF-World Bank's comprehensive approach to debt reduction is designed to ensure that no poor country faces a debt burden it cannot manage. To date, debt reduction packages under the HIPC Initiative have been approved for 35 countries, 29 of them in Africa, providing US$51 billion in debt-service relief over time. Five additional countries are potentially eligible for HIPC Initiative assistance. Debt relief key to poverty reduction The HIPC Initiative was launched in 1996 by the IMF and World Bank, with the aim of ensuring that no poor country faces a debt burden it cannot manage. Since then, the international financial community, including multilateral organizations and governments have worked together to reduce to sustainable levels the external debt burdens of the most heavily indebted poor countries. In 1999, a comprehensive review of the Initiative allowed the Fund to provide faster, deeper, and broader debt relief and strengthened the links between debt relief, poverty reduction, and social policies. In 2005, to help accelerate progress toward the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) , the HIPC Initiative was supplemented by the Multilateral Debt Relief Initiative (MDRI) . The MDRI allows for 100 percent relief on eligible debts by three multilateral institutions-the IMF, the World Bank, and the African Development Fund (AfDF)-for countries completing the HIPC Initiative process. In 2007, the Inter-American Development Bank (IaDB) also decided to provide additional ("beyond HIPC") debt relief to the five HIPCs in the Western Hemisphere. Two step process Countries must meet certain criteria, commit to poverty reduction through policy changes and demonstrate a good track-record over time. The Fund and Bank provide interim debt relief in the initial st

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