News headlines in January 2013, page 3

WASHINGTON, Jan 30 (IPS) - Nearly 22 percent of professionally managed assets around the world can be considered sustainable or responsible, according to a finance industry assessment, the first comprehensive look at the subject.

HAVANA, Jan 29 (IPS) - Cuban diplomacy will be working full blast this year, promoting its own approach to integration in line with the needs and goals of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), a regional body that excludes the United States, Cuba's leading ideological opponent.

SANTIAGO, Chile, Jan 29 (IPS) - Openly conceding the differences in their ideological, economic and geopolitical views, leaders and high-level representatives of the 33 member countries of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) committed themselves to integration at their first ever summit.

RIO DE JANEIRO, Jan 29 (IPS) - Hoping to prevent the tragedies that have become an annual event every rainy season, authorities in the southeastern Brazilian state of Rio de Janeiro plan to require that municipal governments include environmental risk mapping in their infrastructure projects, in order to prohibit construction in vulnerable areas.

UXBRIDGE, Canada, Jan 29 (IPS) - Weird is the only way to describe January temperatures whipsawing between record warm and arctic cold over a span of a few days. Experts say that is what climate change looks like: weird, record-shattering weather.

GENEVA, Jan 29 (IPS) - The issue of foreign debt has made a major comeback due to the crisis in Europe, in which many countries had to seek big bailouts to keep them from defaulting on their loan payments. Before this, debt crises have been associated with African and Latin American countries. In 1997-99, three East Asian countries also joined the indebted countries' club.

CAIRO, Jan 29 (IPS) - Concerns are mounting over Egypt's future after the outbreaks of violence that marked the second anniversary of Egypt's January 25 Revolution. Massive anti-government rallies led to ongoing clashes between protesters and security forces that have left at least 40 people dead. Cities along Egypt's Suez Canal faced a government-declared state of emergency.

ADDIS ABABA, Jan 29 (IPS) - The African Union summit failed to provide a breakthrough in the ongoing negotiations between Sudan and South Sudan when it ended on Monday Jan. 28.

SANTIAGO, Jan 29 (IPS) - The nations of Latin America and the Caribbean strengthened their position with respect to Europe at the CELAC-EU summit held this weekend in the Chilean capital, reaching agreements that protect their natural resources from foreign investors and securing a joint condemnation of the United States' trade embargo against Cuba.

WASHINGTON, Jan 28 (IPS) - A bipartisan group of U.S. senators on Monday unveiled a set of principles that will serve as an initial framework for a legislative push that many are increasingly optimistic could result in the largest overhaul of the country's immigration system in decades.