This week's featured articles:

TOP STORY - Being Homeless is Against the Law (NASNA, USA)
Margo Pierce
NASNA (USA) - Members of the North American Street Newspaper Association embarked on their first collaborative article in December of last year. The article is now being published across North America and here by the Street News Service. Margo Pierce speaks to members of the network across North America as she investigates stories and legal cases where homeless individuals are being fined or thrown in jail for sleeping outside, crossing the street, and having no where to use the bathroom. With the number of tickets given to homeless individuals doubling, tripling, and even quadrupling in the past 10 years, jails have become the new homeless shelters. Advocates point to research that shows by providing housing, costs that cities endure decrease drastically. The story takes an in-depth look at instances throughout North America where homeless individuals are the victims not the perpetrators. (3,566 words. English + pictures)

TOP STORY - Head Shops - Let’s get tough on legal highs (Ireland’s Big Issue)
Jennifer May
Ireland’s Big Issue - ‘Dogs Bollix’, ‘Whizz’, ‘Smilers’, ‘Fast Trax’ - today you don’t even have to leave your house if you want to get high. Enter ‘Head Shops’ into Google and in less than five seconds you are met by hundreds of web-sites offering an amazing variety of legal highs. Labelled as plant food and bath salts, ‘not for human consumption’, many are experimenting with the products that head shops have to offer, believing it to be safer than classified drugs while offering the same high. But how safe are they? Leading to hallucinations, severe psychosis and even death, there is more to these innocent-looking sachets than meets the eye. Jennifer May for Ireland’s Big Issue looks at the dangers which head shops pose to the young and impressionable. (1,572 words, English + picture)

TOP STORY - Former quarterback focuses his gaze on Portland’s front lines (Street Roots, USA)
Joanne Zuhl
Street Roots (USA) - Retired National Football League Quarterback Joey Harrington is making a huge splash in his community of Portland, Oregon with his continued work in creating the Joey Harrington Foundation. Through his foundation, the former Heisman Trophy nominee is able to better the youth of Portland through involvement with the Boys and Girls Club, Start Making A Reader Today program (SMART), and the Power of the Purse campaign. Harrington continues to use the doors opened by his career as a professional athlete to give back and influence his community in a positive way. From being on the board of directors in various organizations to jumping into the freezing winter waters during this year’s Special Olympics Polar Bear Plunge. His new full time job of bettering Portland is benefiting many more than a stadium full of football fans. (2,095 words, English + pictures)

Staying connected (The Big Issue South Africa)
Yazeed Kamaldien
The Big Issue South Africa - It’s a tough business this music business. But with wide-open-hearted souls like South African jazz singer Melanie Scholtz always showing up with a smile, it’s a little less bruising. After 10 years on the jazz scene—first as a singer and now as a composer and lyricist too—Scholtz was awarded this year’s Standard Bank Young Artist Award for jazz music. In an interview with the Big Issue South Africa, Scholtz speaks of her love for music and the importance of encouraging young talent. (1,173 words, English + pictures)

Our response to the Hinz & Kunzt online game (Hinz & Kunzt, Germany)
Beatrice Blanck
Hinz & Kunzt (Germany) – With online gaming as popular as ever, 42-year-old graphic designer Ernst-Ludwig Galling has developed a new game with a twist. The player becomes a Hinz & Kunzt street magazine vendor. Their mission? Sell as many papers in two minutes. Hinz & Kunzt’s Beatrice Blanck takes a look at the new game, with a little bit of help from a real Hinz & Kunzt vendor. (738 words, English, German + picture)

Unsere Antwort auf das Pennergame (Hinz & Kunzt, Deutschland)
Beatrice Blanck
Hinz & Kunzt (country) - Ernst-Ludwig Galling entwickelte das neue Onlinespiel, bei dem man in die Haut eines Hinz&Künztlers schlüpfen kann. Unser Experte Joe hat es schon mal getestet Hinz&Künztler Joe Lechner muss unbedingt mehr Zeitungen verkaufen, sonst schafft er es niemals in die Besten-Liste. Aber er findet den Dreh beim neuen Hinz&Kunzt-Onlinespiel Egoseller schon noch. In echt war es ja so ähnlich: „Als ich angefangen habe, Hinz&Kunzt zu verkaufen, hatte ich es auch erst mal schwer. Aber dann bin ich doch reingekommen“, sagt der 28-Jährige. (669 wörten, Deutsch + Bild)

Living it up, living it right (StreetWise, USA)
Ben Cook
StreetWise (USA) – “Whenever I do something good or something turns out right, I give myself a little pat on the back. You’re not going to be perfect all the time—you’re going to fall, and have phases—but we still have to strive to do better next time and to know where we failed at.” The last time that StreetWise spoke to vendor Arnold Donaldson, he was one year sober and becoming more involved with his spiritual nature. Now, he’s proud to be 3 years sober and is more dedicated than ever to living up to his highest self. Here, we see how far he has come. (870 words, English + picture)

Appeal filed after results of internal review on ‘Sweatbox matter’ (Edmonton Street News, Canada)
Linda Dumont
Edmonton Street News (Canada)- An appeal has been filed in a case involving the mistreatment of nine homeless individuals in Edmonton Canada. The case first brought to the public by Edmonton Street News in 2005 involved verbally mistreating of nine homeless individuals as well as subjecting them to inadequate physical surroundings. The police officers were recently under investigation until proven innocent. Two of the three individuals involved in taking up the case against the police are now filing an appeal. They cite that the transportation of their persons to two different parts of town, being subjected to unsafe transportation, and being verbally mocked by the police should be enough to get any court to see the breach in law in this case. (674 words, English)

The first rush was the best (Hus Forbi, Denmark)
Marisa Matarese
Hus Forbi (Denmark) - The routine is always the same. For the third time today and for the fourteenth year in a row, Marco goes to Rue de Paquis 35 in Geneva, Switzerland to get his prescribed fix at PEPS (trial project for prescribed heroin). He was one of the first registered in 1994. The year after, when the centre opened, he started the treatment. Marisa Matarese speaks to Marco about his life as an addict. (291 word English summary of Danish article + picture. Original article – 769 words)

Det første sus var det bedste (Hus Forbi, Denmark)
Marisa Matarese
Hus Forbi (Denmark) - Marco har taget heroin i 40 år. De seneste fjorten er det sket under kontrollerede forhold. Klokken er lidt i 18 en tirsdag aften. Det kunne være en hvilken som helst anden dag. Rutinen er den samme. For tredje gang denne dag og for 14. år i træk går Marco op ad trapperne i bygningen på Rue de Paquis 35 i centrum af Geneve i Schweiz. (769 words, Danish + picture)

The New Poor (Spare Change News, USA)
David Jefferson
Spare Change News (USA) - “The prevalent fear of poverty among the educated classes is the worst moral disease from which our civilization suffers.” When William James, ostensible father of American Psychology, penned this line over a century ago, he had embedded the idea in a discussion on religious experience, in which he also extolled the virtues of voluntary poverty. Today, in a totally distinct context, James’ words are imbued with new meaning. Due to economic recession and what many economists have deemed a jobless recovery in contemporary America, people who never before feared poverty—the educated, or middle class—must now confront harsh new realities. The current conditions are like nothing we’ve ever seen. In this editorial for Spare Change News, David Jefferson looks into the reality of unemployment in America today. (1,258 words, English)

True North, Strong and Free (Megaphone, Canada)
Sean Casey
Megaphone (Canada) - In the months approaching the Olympics, people other than the athletes were preparing as the Canadian government attempted to sweep out all anti-Olympic protests in Vancouver. The creation of the Integrated Security Unit (ISU) was only the beginning as known protesters were targets and their privacy invaded. Megaphone interviews Dr. Shaw to discuss his concerns about how the Olympics impact our individual and collective civil liberties. (1,207 words, English + picture)

The person who tortures a dog is going to pounce... (Flaszter, Hungary)
Staff Writer
Flaszter (Hungary) - “In their childhood murderers very often torture animals then kill them,” says Robert K. Kessler, who has produced studies about serial killers for the FBI. Several studies also convinced sociologists, legislators and lawyers about the fact that violence committed against animals requires attention. Hungarian street paper Flaszter takes a look at the link between animal cruelty and violence, with examples of serial killers and murders from recent years. (945 words, English and Hungarian)

Aki kutyát kínoz, emberre készül… (Flaszter, Hungary)
Staff Writer
Flaszter (Hungary) - Bárki, aki bármely élőlény életet értéktelennek tartja, veszélyes, mert, hogy előbb vagy utóbb az emberi életet is értéktelennek fogja tekinteni" írta a humanista Albert Schweitzer. "A gyilkosok nagyon gyakran már gyermekkorukban állatokat kínoznak, és ölnek meg" mondja Robert K. Kessler, aki sorozatgyilkosokról készített tanulmányokat az FBI-nak. Több tanulmány is meggyőzte már a szociológusokat, törvényalkotókat, és bíróságokat arról, hogy az állatokkal szemben elkövetett kegyetlenkedések figyelmet követelnek. Ezek ugyanis lehetnek első jelek: olyan elmebéli állapotot tükröznek, amelyben bejósolható az emberi áldozatokkal való bűncselekmények elkövetése is. Hosszú erőszakos út (829 words, Hungarian and English)

Olympics 2010: “Make-up” agenda against the city’s weakest members (Augustin, Austria)
Elke Krasny
Augustin (Austria) - Big events cast a cloud. The greater the event, the bigger the cloud. From Beijing to Vancouver, it always seems to be the same procedure. Cities are preparing themselves for their Olympics. They are setting up. It is all about prestige and reliability. They are under enormous pressure. They know exactly how high the stakes are. Before the 2010 Winter Games kicked off, Elke Krasny for Augustin in Austria took a look at the true impact of an Olympic event. (228 word English summary of German article + picture. Original article – 1,081 words)

Olympics 2010: Make-up-Programm gegen die Schwächsten der Stadt (Augustin, Österreich)
Elke Krasny
Augustin (Österreich) - Große Ereignisse werfen ihre Schatten voraus. Je größer die Ereignisse, desto länger die Schatten. Von Peking bis Vancouver scheint es das immer gleiche Procedere zu geben. Städte rüsten sich für ihre Olympiaden. Sie rüsten auf. Es geht um Ansehen und um Sicherheit. Sie stehen unter enormem Druck. Sie wissen ganz genau, was auf dem Spiel steht. (1,081 wörten, Deutsch + Bild)

“Extraterrestrial life is the most probable hypothesis” (Surprise, Switzerland)
Mena Kost
Surprise (Switzerland) - Little green men in flying saucers – those who believe in them are often considered certifiably insane, and scientists are reluctant to approach the subject. In contrast to that, space expert Peter Creola says that a serious research on UFOs is not only possible, but necessary. Otherwise, he says, the observation of scientifically unexplainable flying objects will only be discussed by charlatans. Even though scientists who aim at a serious debate of the subject are not laughed at anymore, governments in Switzerland and the USA do not give funding to scientific projects that want to explore extraterrestrial life. Mena Kost interviews Creola for Surprise in Switzerland on the possibility of life in space. (263 word English summary of German article. Original article – 1,838 words)

«Ausserirdisches Leben ist die wahrscheinlichste Hypothese» (Surprise, Schweiz)
Mena Kost
Surprise (Schweiz) - Kleine grüne Männchen in fliegenden Untertassen? Papperlapapp! Weltraumexperte Peter Creola (69) erklärt im Gespräch, warum er für eine gross angelegte Erforschung des UFO-Phänomens plädiert, was das der Menschheit bringen könnte – und warum die Annahme einer ausserirdischen Intelligenz wissenschaftlich gesehen durchaus konservativ ist. Als unglücklich verliebter 16-Jähriger träumte sich Peter Creola von der Erde weg. Später doktorierte er über Weltraumrecht und vertrat die Schweiz bei der European Space Agency. Der richtige Mann für ein Gespräch über ein Stiefkind der Wissenschaft – die UFOs. (1,838 wörten, Deutsch)

‘Climate Change is Killing People in Drylands’ (InDepth News)
Ramesh Jaura
“Enhancing soils anywhere enhances life everywhere,” says UN’s top official Luc Gnacadja, who is tasked with combating land degradation and drought – not only in Africa, the most vulnerable continent, but all along the drylands belt running from Latin America through Sahel and Asia. Gnacadja is executive secretary of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), which along with the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) emerged from the Earth Summit June 1992 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Here, he talk climate change in the drylands with Ramesh Jaura. (1,917 words, English)

New Signals For A Global Climate Change Accord (InDepth News)
Kamala Viswanathan
A landmark conference in Indonesia has rekindled a momentous proposal for the establishment of a World Environment Organisation tabled at the UN General Assembly Special Session some thirteen years ago. In a historic declaration, government ministers and senior officials from more than 135 countries gathered in Nusa Dua, on the Indonesian island of Bali, pleaded for improving “the overall management of the global environment, accepting that that 'governance architecture' has in many ways become too complex and fragmented”. Kamala Viswanathan reports for InDepth News. (1,595 words, English)

Only plastic between Haiti homeless and storms (Reuters)
Olesya Dmitracova
Seasonal rains and hurricanes spell trouble for Haiti in the best of times, but with hundreds of thousands of people living in flimsy makeshift shelters after January's earthquake, this year the dangers are much greater. The rainy season begins in earnest in early April and the hurricane season in early June, according to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). Both can be deadly. "If a hurricane hits Haiti head on, the loss of life will be severe and every temporary housing camp will be wiped out," Cameron Sinclair, co-founder of non-profit design and building group Architecture for Humanity, wrote in a blog. With the January 12 earthquake having killed 300,000 people, Haiti has already had enough to contend with this year. Olesya Dmitracova reports on the impact which the rainy season could have on the already troubled country. (736 words, English + picture)

Grief and hunger grow in ruins of Chilean town (Reuters)
Terry Wade
Kneeling over a row of body bags on the floor of a school gymnasium, Salome Tobita softly kissed the purple hand of her dead son. "My God, my son has gone, my love!" she wailed, grasping the young man's cold hand between her palms. Chilean emergency workers in white plastic overalls, hoods and gas masks comforted her as they sought to match bodies with fingerprints. Tobita and other residents of Constitucion suffered a twin catastrophe on Saturday 27 February, when a massive earthquake flattened much of the seaside town's historic centre before huge waves swept in, killing many who had survived the temblor. Terry Wade reports from Constitucion. (528 words, English + picture)

Women More Educated, Not More Equal (Inter Press Service)
Mario Osava
When it comes to female education rates, progress has been made around the world, and in many countries girls and young women have outnumbered and outperformed boys and men at all levels of schooling for decades. Nevertheless, these advances have yet to translate into greater equity in employment, politics and social relations. With women making up the majority of university students in South Africa and Brazil and scoring higher than their male counterparts in literacy in the Philippines, it is surprising that women are still earning 30% less than men. Mario Osava for IPS looks into why women are still lagging behind in the world of work. (1,299 words, English + picture)

Piano Sounds Good in Gaza Too (Inter Press Service)
Pam Rasmussen
At 14, Nour plays the piano, and she knows the facts of the world that surrounds her. That the average age for marriage is 18, likely to a man found by parents, her place would be within that home, and a woman has on average 6.5 children. Nour, however, goes to a United Nations Works and Relief Agency (UNRWA) school in Gaza City, and loves journalism, inspired by her older sister, who works at a radio station. Nour helps announce programmes on weekends, and now wants to be a journalist herself. She wants to wait till her mid-20s to marry, and have just two children so she and her husband can afford to give them the best life possible. Her classmate Tasneem, also 14, wants to follow in the footsteps of her mother and father (both physicians) and study medicine - a common dream among the better students in Gaza. And with 2008 census data showing that the number of economically active Gazan women had risen by ten per cent, their dreams are seaming more possible. Pam Rasmussen meet some young girls in Gaza to talk about their hopes for the future. (714 words, English)

Green Measures Expose Bias Against Urban Poor (Inter Press Service)
Kara Santos
Edgar Borras sifts through his remaining possessions in a demolished shanty beside a Manila waterway, preparing to bring them to his wife and 12-year-old son who now live in a remote relocation site in a province outside the Philippine capital. Before a November 2009 government order to move flood-prone informal settlements after the fury of tropical storm Ketsana in September last year, Borras’ family had lived for 12 years in a tiny dwelling on the east bank of the Manggahan floodway, an artificial channel that discharges water from the Marikina River to Laguna de Bay, the country's biggest lake. But while efforts to reduce vulnerability to disasters is laudable, Borras’ situation exposes the bias against the urban poor -- many of whom provide key services as street cleaners, factory workers, garbage collectors and others in this capital of nearly 12 million people – as the main cause of urban blight and pollution, among other problems. Kara Santos reports. (1,300 words, English)

Jagd auf Homosexuelle – Gesetze werden verschärft (IPS Europa)
Evelyn Matsamura Kiapi
Wenn Pepe Onziema morgens aufwacht, überfällt sie Panik. Die Transsexuelle fürchtet um ihr Leben. Denn in ihrem Heimatland Uganda sind sexuelle Minderheiten Zielscheibe einer Hasskampagne. Onziema leitet das Netzwerk 'Sexual Minorities Uganda' (SMUG). Aus Angst, angepöbelt oder überfallen zu werden, meidet sie Restaurants und öffentliche Verkehrsmittel. Sobald es dunkel wird, verriegelt sie die Tür ihrer Wohnung in einem Vorort der Hauptstadt Kampala, wo sie mit ihrer Partnerin lebt. Einige Male ist Onziema im Fernsehen aufgetreten, um die Rechte sexueller Minderheiten in dem afrikanischen Land zu verteidigen. Seither wird sie in der Boulevardpresse als Mitglied von Ugandas "unmoralischer Gesellschaft" geschmäht. Wie andere Transsexuelle wurde sie festgenommen, angespuckt und beschimpft, und Nachbarn bewarfen sie mit Steinen. (652 wörten, Deutsch + Bild)

Die Schule kommt – Mobile Klassen für arme Kinder (IPS Europa)
Kanis Dursin
Die schwere Wirtschaftskrise in Indonesien zwang Nurul Kumala dazu, vor zwei Jahren die Schule abzubrechen. Nun büffelt die 20-Jährige für ihren Abschluss, um an der Universität studieren zu können. Ihre Lehrer kommen mehrmals in der Woche in Bussen, um ihre Schüler in mobilen Klassen zu unterrichten. "Ich möchte etwas aus meinem Leben machen und auch meinen Eltern helfen", erklärte Kumala, die in Bintaro in Süd-Jakarta lebt. Mehr als 60 Kinder und Jugendliche lernen dort an vier verschiedenen Orten. Jede Klasse trifft sich zwei Mal pro Woche. Die Pädagogen bringen Texte, Bücher, Geräte für wissenschaftliche Experimente und anderes Lehrmaterial mit. Auch in Senen in Zentral-Jakarta, in Manggarai in Süd-Jakarta und in Bantar Gebang in West-Java können Kinder aus sozial schwachen Familien auf diese Weise den versäumten Stoff nachholen. (625 wörten, Deutsch)

Rauchfrei kochen, besser leben – Kleine Revolution durch Öfen aus Ton (IPS Europa)
Zofeen Ebrahim
Nie wäre Sona Siddiqi die Idee gekommen, es einmal zur meist gefragten Frau ihres Dorfes zu werden. Die Analphabetin aus Ranzan Katiar, einem Dorf im Bezirk Thatta in der südpakistanischen Sindh-Provinz, baut Herde aus Ton, die sich gerade für Frauen in den ländlichen Gebieten als wahrer Segen erweisen. Die Kochvorrichtungen verfügen über Eigenschaften, die sich für Menschen in der Region in jeder Hinsicht auszahlen: Sie sind preisgünstig, raucharm und sparsam im Umgang mit Holz. Für Frauen wie Rozan Nazar bedeutet dies: Sie müssen nun nicht mehr jeden Tag fünf Kilometer laufen, um an Brennmaterial zu kommen. (748 wörten, Deutsch)

Un bono contra la mortalidad materna e infantil (Inter Press Service)
Franz Chávez
Un programa social para evitar la muerte de dos madres por día en Bolivia por complicaciones en el parto, avanza en medio de dificultades administrativas, pero con enormes posibilidades de reducir esa tasa hasta en 80 por ciento en los primeros cinco años. "En Bolivia, el riesgo de morir por una causa vinculada con el embarazo, parto o post parto es muy alto. Cada año aproximadamente 623 mujeres mueren por consecuencias de complicaciones durante el embarazo", expresa el diagnóstico del Plan Nacional para Mejorar la Salud Materna del Ministerio de Salud. A ocho meses de la aplicación del Bono Juana Azurduy, su creador, el ex ministro de Salud Ramiro Tapia, está convencido de que en cinco años más, la mortalidad materna caerá en 80 por ciento. Según los registros más recientes, de 2008, la tasa es de 222 muertes maternas por cada 100.000 nacidos vivos, la segunda más alta de América Latina. (1,124 palabras, español+ fotografía)

Más educadas que ellos, pero no más iguales (Inter Press Service)
Mario Osava
La escolaridad femenina avanzó en todo el mundo, y en muchos países las niñas y las jóvenes estudian más y mejor que los varones hace décadas. Pero eso está lejos de traducirse en equidad en el trabajo, la política y las relaciones sociales. En Brasil, por ejemplo, eran mujeres 53,3 por ciento de quienes ingresaron a la universidad en 2007. Esa proporción superó casi siempre el 55 por ciento en los últimos 15 años. Y la participación aumenta en más de cinco puntos porcentuales entre quienes concluyen cada curso, lo que confirma que ellas son mejor estudiantes. (1,202 palabras, español)

Violentos disturbios en defensa de la burka (Inter Press Service)
Sridhar
Un artículo contra el atuendo musulmán "burka", atribuido a la escritora Taslima Nasrin, que ella niega haber escrito, desató disturbios esta semana en dos ciudades de India, confirmando que las tensiones religiosas y nacionalistas no cesan en este país de casi 1.200 millones de habitantes. El desencadenante de los disturbios callejeros en Shimoga y Hassan, en el sureño estado de Karnataka, fue un artículo del diario Kannada Prabha donde la escritora bangladesí en el exilio se habría expresado contra el uso de la ‘burka’, una túnica femenina que cubre todo el cuerpo, incluyendo la cabeza y el rostro, sólo con una rejilla para poder ver. (998 palabras, español)

 

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