News headlines in February 2013, page 20

WASHINGTON, Feb 02 (IPS) - If former Defence Secretary-designate Sen. Chuck Hagel's lacklustre performance at his confirmation hearing Thursday heartened neo-conservatives and other hawks opposed to his nomination, those who argued that the Israel lobby has been exerting too great an influence on U.S. foreign policy were ecstatic.

TEGUCIGALPA, Feb 02 (IPS) - The doctrine of national security imposed by the United States on Latin America, which fostered the dictatorships of the 1970s and 1980s, is making a comeback in Honduras where a new law is combining military defence of the country with police strategies for maintaining domestic order.

WASHINGTON, Feb 01 (IPS) - New biofuel requirements proposed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) are being met with concern by a spectrum of interest groups from environmentalists to the oil industry, with some warning that a gap between the proposal and existing law could force the government to draw on food-based alternative fuels.

SAN SALVADOR, Feb 01 (IPS) - After years of delays and obstacles, a law regulating the pharmaceutical market has come into effect in El Salvador, giving its people access to medicines at more reasonable prices, with discounts of over 50 percent for some drugs sold in high volumes, like diabetes medication.

CARTAGENA DE INDIAS, Colombia, Feb 01 (IPS) - The government of this historic walled city, a bastion of tourism on the Caribbean coast of Colombia, is widening beaches and building dual carriageways on its north side to protect against the ever-worsening impacts of climate change.

BAMAKO, Feb 01 (IPS) - Malians, including students and businesses owners, are donating money to their military's costly war against armed Islamic groups that have occupied the north of this impoverished West African country and committed atrocities against local populations.

ISTANBUL, Feb 01 (IPS) - As negotiations in Turkey's efforts to join the European Union remain stalled, many worry that the Turkish government has little incentive to curb its ongoing crackdown on media freedoms and freedom of expression.

ISTANBUL, Feb 01 (IPS) - The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) has adopted a new strategy to involve citizens and politicians more actively to push for a global ban on nuclear weapons.

KORAPUT, India, Feb 01 (IPS) - Last monsoon season, 65-year-old Sunadhar Ramaparia, a member of the Bhumia tribe in the eastern Indian state of Odisha, mixed indigenous crops like ‘para' paddy, foxtail millet and oil seeds in his upland plot.

WASHINGTON, Feb 01 (IPS) - The optimism expressed by U.S. President Barack Obama and newly confirmed Secretary of State John Kerry about restarting the peace process between Israel and the Palestinians has been met with scepticism from many seasoned Middle East observers and experts.