Bandits are preying on vulnerable survivors of Haiti's earthquake, even raping women in camps set up in the capital. National police chief Mario Andresol said the thugs were taking advantage of the lack of electricity in Port-au-Prince, using the cover of darkness to harass...

If the 20th century was the age of the young, the 21st century will see the rise of the wrinklies. Future historians will record two great social trends in the last half of the 20th century: the dramatic ­decline in fertility, and the transformation of the role of women in society. Clearly they...

Pope Benedict XVI says legislation safeguarding rights of same-sex couples violates 'natural law'Pope Benedict XVI has condemned British equality legislation for running contrary to "natural law" as he confirmed his first visit to the UK later this year. In a letter addressed to the Catholic bishops...

The U.N. has devised various programs to provide food and aid directly to women, who often get outmuscled by men during disaster situations. Relief efforts have become complicated as many Haitian female leaders who worked with U.N. agencies were lost during the earthquake. With 45 percent of Haitian...

In some abusive relationships, men may use strategies to force women to become pregnant, including sabotaging their birth control, researchers reported. In a cross-sectional study of women treated at five family clinics across northern California about 20 per cent of women said that their partner...

Bill Gates, one of the world’s leading philanthropists, has warned that growing donor support for climate change threatens thousands of lives in the developing world by squeezing out funding for health. The warning comes as Mr Gates steps up investment in carbon-free energy and green technology. In...

An ad campaign calls on Egyptians to use family planning more diligently – by trying to make larger families feel guilty. A remarkably clumsy government-sponsored television campaign has recently hit the Egyptian airwaves. It encourages people to cap their offspring to two children, but only by...

Picture the situation in Haiti: families living on top of sewage-contaminated rubbish dumps, with no reliable sources of food and water and virtually no access to health care. This scenario depicts the situation in Haiti before the earthquake that catapulted this impoverished and conflict-ridden...