News headlines in February 2013, page 17

UNITED NATIONS, Feb 07 (IPS) - The fight against female genital mutilation and cutting (FGM/C) continues to gain traction around the world.

PUERTO DE LA LIBERTAD, El Salvador, Feb 07 (IPS) - Boats were tying up at the jetty and there was a bustle of activity as vendors cried their wares, offering shellfish to potential buyers, while young people, sharp knives in hand, filleted sea bass and red snapper. Meanwhile, on the promenade, octogenarian musicians played old-style cumbias and boleros for restaurant patrons.

LONDON, Feb 07 (IPS) - Bulgarian Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov's dramatic announcement Tuesday on the Bulgarian investigation of the July 2012 terror bombing of an Israeli tourist bus was initially reported by Western news media as suggesting clear evidence of Hezbollah's responsibility for the killings.

MAJDAL SHAMS, Occupied Golan Heights, Feb 07 (IPS) - After Israeli war planes reportedly bombed targets in Syrian territory last week, individuals and groups in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights are quietly preparing for the possibility of escalating violence between Syria and Israel.

UNITED NATIONS, Feb 07 (IPS) - The "drone", one of the eminently controversial lethal weapons deployed by the United States in its war against terrorism, is obviously a dirty word in the U.N. lexicon.

WASHINGTON, Feb 06 (IPS) - Environmentalists are warning that a meeting of environment ministers that took place Monday in Sweden has agreed on a weak and inadequate response plan in case of an oil spill in the Arctic Ocean.

SAN SALVADOR, Feb 06 (IPS) - The combination of widespread disregard for traffic regulations and poor vehicle and road controls puts El Salvador among the countries of Latin America with the highest rates of traffic-related deaths.

SANTIAGO, Feb 06 (IPS) - "This is paradise and they want to destroy it. This has had an enormous psychological impact on us," says Guido Melinao, leader of the Mapuche indigenous community of Valeriano Cayicul, referring to the Neltume hydroelectric power plant project planned by the Spanish-Italian consortium Endesa-Enel.

NEW YORK, Feb 06 (IPS) - Shedding new light on a chapter of the U.S. "war on terror" that has largely remained shrouded in secrecy, the Open Society Justice Initiative released a report Tuesday detailing the cases of 136 individuals who were extraordinarily rendered or secretly detained by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).

WASHINGTON, Feb 06 (IPS) - The electoral and political stars are aligning in ways that offer the United States and Mexico major opportunities to substantially deepen their cooperation, particularly on trade, energy, and immigration, according to a report released here Wednesday by a special commission of the Inter-American Dialogue (IAD).