News headlines in April 2013, page 4

UNITED NATIONS, Apr 26 (IPS) - Ishita Chaudhry spent the past 36 hours listening to U.N. delegates discuss population growth and development. She noticed that on "controversial" topics, such as sexual and reproductive rights, young people's voices often get lost.

BELGRADE, Apr 26 (IPS) - Up to a quarter of women in Europe have experienced domestic violence at some point in their lives. But despite the widespread nature of the phenomenon, more often than not we ignore it. A short video launched last month in Serbia managed to break this silence.

CAIRO, Apr 26 (IPS) - The mob that surrounded the home of Mohamed Nour, an Egyptian Shia living in Cairo's Bab El-Shaariya district, claimed it was on a mission to "inoculate" Egypt against Shia religious beliefs. Without intervention, Shia doctrine would spread across Egypt "like a cancer," they had warned.

LILONGWE, Apr 26 (IPS) - Each night Esnart Phiri, a widow with five children, sleeps outside the gates of the state-run maize trader or Admarc market, in Malawi's capital Lilongwe, as she waits for days on end to buy maize.

WASHINGTON, Apr 26 (IPS) - A White House letter Thursday to Congressional leaders suggesting chemical weapons use by the Syrian government of Bashar al-Assad has reignited debate about direct U.S. military involvement in the war-torn country.

LISBON, Apr 25 (IPS) - The anniversary of the peaceful Carnation Revolution that overthrew Portugal's 1926-1974 dictatorship has gone from being a popular celebration to a day of mass protests against the draconian austerity policies of the government of Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho.

BOGOTA, Apr 25 (IPS) - International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) initiatives working to overcome poverty and improve food security in the Colombian countryside can make a positive contribution to government efforts to tackle some of the most neglected problems facing this South American country.

UNITED NATIONS, Apr 25 (IPS) - Speaking of the widespread sanitation crisis, U.N. Deputy Secretary-General Jan Eliasson was quick to produce staggering numbers: of the world's seven billion people, about six billion have mobile phones but only about 4.5 billion have access to toilets.

WASHINGTON, Apr 25 (IPS) - Experts here are calling on the United States and the international community to increase pressure on the government of South Sudan to address weaknesses in its central governance.

MEXICO CITY, Apr 25 (IPS) - Environmental organisations in Mexico are hoping to finance the promotion of fuel-efficient wood-fired cookstoves, which reduce harmful greenhouse gas emissions, through the sale of carbon credits on the voluntary market.