News headlines in April 2013, page 8

GENEVA, Apr 21 (IPS) - As parties to the treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) begin their second preparatory conference in Geneva on Monday, representatives of civil society and several countries have decided to bring the festering nuclear issue and its potential humanitarian consequences to the centre stage.

BELGRADE, Apr 21 (IPS) - On Apr. 19, Serbia and Kosovo put years of animosity aside when their prime ministers Ivica Dacic and Hashim Thaci initialled the first ever agreement between Belgrade and Pristina that should lead to normalisation of relations between the two former enemies.

GUWAHATI, India, Apr 21 (IPS) - The year 2013 opened on a disastrous note for the one-horned rhinoceros of the northeastern Indian state of Assam. At the beginning of April, officials in the Kaziranga National Park (KNP), one of the last retreats left in South Asia for these endangered creatures, reported that 17 rhinos had been poached.

UNITED NATIONS, Apr 20 (IPS) - When international human rights groups launch a global campaign next week to ban "fully autonomous weapons", they will follow in the footsteps of the highly-successful 1990s collective worldwide effort to ban anti-personnel landmines and blinding lasers.

WASHINGTON, Apr 20 (IPS) - Backed by the German government and prominent civil society voices, United Nations experts are calling for the World Bank to explicitly incorporate international human right standards into its "safeguards" to minimise negative impacts of bank financing on vulnerable communities and environments.

WASHINGTON, Apr 20 (IPS) - "Recall the face of the poorest and weakest man you have seen, and ask yourself if this step you contemplate is going to be any use to him."

WASHINGTON, Apr 19 (IPS) - Development experts here are warning that widespread, unchecked violence against citizens in Latin America is posing a threat to the development of the entire region.

QUITO, Apr 19 (IPS) - The government of Ecuador is determined to curb the growing number of teen pregnancies, and has begun to knock down barriers that stand in the way of the right to a responsible sexual and reproductive life.

LIMA, Apr 19 (IPS) - Nicolás Maduro was recognised as president-elect of Venezuela by a Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) emergency summit held in Lima to discuss the situation in the highly polarised country, where a narrow electoral result triggered social and political tension.

LUMUMBASHI, DR Congo, Apr 19 (IPS) - The Mai-Mai Kata-Katanga rebel group operating in Katanga, in south eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, say that they are engaged in an armed campaign for the autonomy of the province because they have not benefited from its rich mineral deposits.