News headlines in October 2012, page 2

Oct 29 (IPS) - "I heard about the Zero Hunger plan on television, but unfortunately it has not arrived here," complained Elías Ruíz, a small farmer in the southern community of Santa Odilia, about the Guatemalan government's flagship programme to end poverty.

WASHINGTON, Oct 29 (IPS) - Just over a week before the United States votes in a highly anticipated and historically tight presidential election, a new poll released Monday finds that interest by Latino voters has strengthened significantly over the past two months, and that turnout among Hispanics could be higher than the records set in 2008.

ATLANTA, Georgia, Oct 29 (IPS) - With the U.S. East Coast virtually shutting down Monday with the arrival of Hurricane Sandy, the broader debate over transitioning to cleaner energy sources and slowing, if not halting, climate change is taking on ever greater urgency.

PUNTA DEL ESTE, Uruguay, Oct 29 (IPS) - Uruguay is in the headlines of agricultural development news this week as it hosts the Second Global Conference on Agricultural Research for Development (GCARD 2) from Oct. 29 to Nov. 1 in the resort city of Punta del Este.

RIO DE JANEIRO, Oct 29 (IPS) - The development of agriculture through the adoption of technological innovations will help Latin America leave behind its status as the most unequal region in the world, and will especially benefit the Southern Cone, one of the planet’s largest food reserves.

SALEM, Occupied West Bank, Oct 29 (IPS) - Affixed to a large cement bloc, the rusted, grey gate leading Palestinian farmers from the northern West Bank village of Salem to their olive groves was opened for four days this year.

WASHINGTON, Oct 28 (IPS) - In 1998, the Defence Department vetoed a delegation of prominent U.S. nuclear specialists to go to Iran to investigate its nuclear programme at the invitation of the government of newly-elected Iranian President Mohammad Khatami, according to the nuclear scientist who was organising the mission.

PANSALGOLLA, Sri Lanka, Oct 28 (IPS) - The old adage ‘nature is the great equaliser’ no longer holds true in countries like Sri Lanka, where the poor bear the brunt of extreme weather events.

NEW DELHI, Oct 27 (IPS) - Environmental activists are cautiously optimistic that a call by a court-appointed technical committee for a ten-year moratorium on open field trials of genetically modified (GM) crops will shelve plans to introduce bio-engineered foods in this largely agricultural country.

JAKARTA, Oct 27 (IPS) - If the caste system existed in Indonesia the 10 elderly people who live in Jakarta's Kramat Street would surely be untouchables: for decades they and their families have been banned from jobs and access to education and, until 2005, their identity cards marked them as former political prisoners.