<p class="bodytext"> <b>UNITED NATIONS, New York</b> – Obstetric fistula, the most devastating of all pregnancy-related disabilities, affects tens of thousands of girls and women in South Asia, said UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, at the first South Asia Conference for the Prevention and Treatment of Fistula, held in Dhaka, Bangladesh this week.</p>

<p> <b>UNITED NATIONS, New York</b> – Women and girls should be safe in their homes, on the streets, in the workplace and in school, Thoraya Ahmed Obaid, UNFPA Executive Director, said today on the occasion of the International Day for the Elimination on Violence against Women.</p>

<p> <b>PORT-OF-SPAIN, Trinidad and Tobago</b> – Twenty Caribbean countries and territories today reaffirmed their unequivocal <a href="http://www.unfpa.org/publications/index.cfm?ID=176">commitment to the action programme of the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD)</a>.</p>

<p> <b>UNITED NATIONS, New York</b> – The number of women who die of pregnancy and childbirth in Iraq has nearly tripled since 1990, according to a <a href="http://149.120.32.2/rh/docs/iraq-rept04-08-03.doc">reproductive health survey</a> conducted by UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund.</p>

<p> <b>UNITED NATIONS, New York</b> — A new booklet, which consolidates data that show a shocking decline in the number of girls compared to boys in India during the last decade due to the elimination of girls by sex-selective abortion and infanticide, has drawn strong responses.</p>

KUALA LUMPUR – Obstetric complications continue to be a leading cause of death and disability for women of reproductive age in developing countries. Over half a million women die during pregnancy and childbirth each year, the majority in Africa and Asia.

<p> <b>NEW YORK/GENEVA</b> -- New findings on maternal mortality by WHO, UNICEF and UNFPA show that a woman living in sub-Saharan Africa has a 1 in 16 chance of dying in pregnancy or childbirth.</p>

<p> <b>UNITED NATIONS, New York</b> — UNFPA deplores the recently broadcast statement by the President of the Pontifical Council on the Family, Cardinal Alfonso Lopez Trujillo, that condoms do not protect against transmission of HIV.</p>

<p class="bodytext"> <b>LONDON</b>—Meeting adolescents’ reproductive health needs is an urgent priority in the global fight against poverty and HIV/AIDS, emphasizes The State of World Population 2003 report by UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund.</p>

<p class="bodytext"> <b>New York</b> -- Continuing fighting in Liberia is worsening an already severe humanitarian crisis that has pushed maternal and infant mortality to levels not seen for decades, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), warned today.</p>

<p> <b>NAIROBI</b>—With the achievement of broad consensus on the appropriate ways to feed infants and young children in the context of HIV/AIDS, four UN agencies today urged governments to immediately scale up action in five priority areas to save lives and ensure the growth, health, development and well-being of all children.</p>

<p> <b>UNITED NATIONS, New York</b> – With its rapid spread across the world, HIV/AIDS has become as much a threat to overall development as a health issue, with a powerful impact on national economic and social sectors.</p>