News headlines in February 2013, page 9

HAVANA, Feb 20 (IPS) - No-till farming is a response to climate change that fits well with the needs of the Caribbean: it increases the ability to capture water, while withstanding both drought and excessive rains, says expert Theodor Friedrich, representative of the United Nation's Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) in Cuba.

WASHINGTON, Feb 20 (IPS) - Development workers and aid strategists are urging the U.S. government to adopt a comprehensive strategy for addressing root problems in "fragile states", warning that an outdated focus on military intervention is draining resources and exacerbating security problems.

MEXICO CITY, Feb 20 (IPS) - Oil, the symbol of modern Mexico, is once again stirring up local political waters, with turbulent debates on the fate of the state-owned oil monopoly and conflicts over the privatisation of key economic and strategic areas.

DUBLIN, Feb 19 (IPS) - There is no city or country in the world where women and girls live free of the fear of violence. No leader can claim: This is not happening in my backyard.

NEW YORK, Feb 19 (IPS) - It was almost four o'clock in the morning on Feb. 18, 1990, when Dr. Manorani Saravanamuththu pulled into the driveway of No. 42 Castle Street, an old Portuguese-style home located in a suburb of Sri Lanka's capital, Colombo.

UNITED NATIONS, Feb 19 (IPS) - The world's nuclear environment has increasingly turned politically toxic, replete with threats, accusations and open defiance of Security Council resolutions.

PESHAWAR, Feb 19 (IPS) - Taliban militants have been losing grip over the handling of their would-be suicide bombers. Of late they failed to carry out their missions as planned.

LISBON, Feb 19 (IPS) - Thousands of people marched through the streets of cities across Portugal "against exploitation and impoverishment" caused by the government's austerity cuts, in a protest organised by the General Confederation of Portuguese Workers (CGTP), the country's largest trade union.

QUITO, Feb 18 (IPS) - Ecuador's President Rafael Correa secured yesterday his third term in office by a landslide, after vowing to radically deepen his project of citizens' revolution by making the changes achieved thus far "irreversible", fully achieving the goals of eradicating poverty, transforming the model of production and consolidating the "rule of the people".