News headlines in February 2013, page 18

NAIROBI, Feb 06 (IPS) - For the Samburu community in northern Kenya it was bad enough that Julius Lekupe had not sired a son - it was even worse that his eldest daughter refused to be "cut".

CAIRO, Feb 06 (IPS) - Graphic video footage of an Egyptian man being dragged naked across a street and beaten by riot police during a protest in Cairo has sparked outrage in Egypt and heightened calls for police reform, a key demand of the 2011 uprising that toppled dictator Hosni Mubarak.

WASHINGTON, Feb 06 (IPS) - Officials at the World Bank are forcefully rejecting a new internal evaluation that is highly critical of the institution's decade-long forest policy, expressing their "strong disagreement" with some assertions in the report.

HAVANA, Feb 06 (IPS) - Among millions of people flocking to the polls in Cuba to vote in general elections was the unexpected figure of former president Fidel Castro, making a surprise public appearance in what was interpreted as a reaffirmation of his support for the government of his brother, President Raúl Castro.

WASHINGTON, Feb 05 (IPS) - The United States is applying different standards in its public criticism of the human rights record of authoritarian states of the former Soviet Union (FSU), according to a new report released here Monday by the Open Society Institute (OSI).

GENEVA, Feb 05 (IPS) - A tsunami is looming on the horizon and the world is unprepared for it. This one won't be a massive wall of water but a tidal wave of disease – and experts say the international community needs to act fast to keep it from crashing.

DAVOS, Feb 05 (IPS) - Barbed wire and safety fences are dismantled, the police and army are withdrawn and freedom of movement is restored. The 43^rd annual meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF) ended last month with negligible protests against the 'global leaders'.

NIAMEY, Feb 05 (IPS) - Communities in northern Mali are in need of humanitarian intervention following the recent military intervention in Gao and Timbuktu, leading non-governmental organisations to call for deliveries of food aid, fuel and even currency notes.

PORTO ALEGRE, Brazil, Feb 05 (IPS) - The tragedy at the Kiss nightclub cast a dark shadow on proceedings at the Thematic Social Forum held in Porto Alegre, the southern Brazilian city renowned for hosting the first World Social Forum in 2001.

WASHINGTON, Feb 04 (IPS) - The research wing of the U.S. Congress is warning that three decades of "historically unprecedented" build-up in the number of prisoners incarcerated in the United States have led to a level of overcrowding that is now "taking a toll on the infrastructure" of the federal prison system.