News headlines in November 2012

HAVANA, Nov 30 (IPS) - The Colombian government and the FARC guerrillas will resume the peace talks in the Cuban capital on Dec. 5, in a climate of moderate optimism surrounding a process in which citizen participation could play a key role.

MEXICO CITY, Nov 30 (IPS) - "A Canadian firm wants to extract minerals in our area; it will harm the environment and use up water needed by the community," complained Hipólito García, who lives in Tetlama, 110 kilometres south of the Mexican capital. Similar complaints are echoed around the country.

MEXICO CITY, Nov 30 (IPS) - In a country like Mexico, identified with soaring crime rates, impunity, police corruption and a largely dysfunctional justice system, reports of judicial efficiency are rare, especially in the case of juvenile justice.

CODRINGTON, Barbuda, Nov 30 (IPS) - Local scientists are warning the tiny 62-square-mile island of Barbuda is becoming one of the most vulnerable spots on earth to the consequences of climate change.

DOHA, Qatar, Nov 30 (IPS) - A new scientific report shows that global warming can be kept well under two degrees C, but only if most of the known deposits of coal, oil and gas remain in the ground.

DOHA, Qatar, Nov 30 (IPS) - As United Nations climate talks get underway this week in Doha, Qatar, they show a subtle, unsettling shift in the global climate change debate.

RAMALLAH, Occupied West Bank, Nov 30 (IPS) - Thousands of Palestinians gathered throughout the West Bank and Gaza Strip Thursday, including representatives of all the major political factions, to celebrate and to show their support for the Palestinian Authority's bid for upgraded status at the United Nations.

ULAANBAATAR, Mongolia, Nov 30 (IPS) - The Oyu Tolgoi copper-gold mine in the southern Gobi desert in Mongolia has become a symbol of a looming crisis: a limited water supply that could be exhausted within a decade, seriously threatening the lives and livelihoods of the local population.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, India, Nov 30 (IPS) - Mujeeb Rahuman (39), a mason in the Venjaramoodu village in Thiruvananthapuram, the southernmost district in India's coastal Kerala state, has been a chain smoker for the past twenty years.

UNITED NATIONS, Nov 30 (IPS) - Amidst thunderous applause - and the ceremonious unfurling of a Palestinian flag in the General Assembly hall - the U.N.'s highest policy-making body Thursday voted overwhelmingly to elevate Palestine from an "observer" to a "non-member state".