News headlines in May 2013, page 12

DHAKA, May 20 (IPS) - "It was dark and hot with choking dust all around. The air was filled with the smell of decomposing corpses," recalled Nasima, a 24-year-old factory worker who spent four days buried under the rubble of an eight-storey building that collapsed in a suburb of Bangladesh's capital Dhaka last month.

LILONGWE, May 20 (IPS) - Lloyd Phiri, a fisherman from Senga Bay on Lake Malawi's shores in Malawi's central region, knows that the lake's water levels are dropping. He can see it in his catch, which has shrunk by more than 80 percent in recent years.

CHARLESTOWN, Nevis, May 19 (IPS) - The Caribbean does not have the luxury of time for decisive action on climate change and global warming. In fact, it is on the brink of calamity, according to a prominent scientist.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, India, May 19 (IPS) - The disease itself may not discriminate on the basis of gender, but when it comes to healthcare for patients with diabetes, women in India find themselves at a disadvantage compared to men.

NAIROBI, May 19 (IPS) - Victoria J. married in 2009 at age 14, and became pregnant shortly after. "I started labour in the morning on a Friday …. The nurse kept checking and saying I would deliver safely. On Monday she said I was weak.

ATHENS, May 18 (IPS) - With no end in sight for the ongoing two-year war in Syria, the ensuing humanitarian crisis continues to escalate, with over 1 million refugees having fled to neighbouring countries and at least another 3 million displaced within Syria.

SRINAGAR, May 18 (IPS) - Aadil Khan and his two siblings had been playing as usual behind their house in the village of Diver, 110 kilometres north of Kashmir's capital, Srinagar, when they came across what they thought was a "plaything" laying on the ground. But no sooner had they picked the object up than it literally shattered their innocent lives into pieces.

PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, May 18 (IPS) - Whether by accident or coincidence, recent days have seen a variety of Caribbean leaders and journalists question whether the region is failing to pursue leadership roles within international organisations - and thus losing its voice in global issues like trade, climate change, and peace and security.

WASHINGTON, May 18 (IPS) - A nuclear-armed Iran would not pose a fundamental threat to the United States and its regional allies like Israel and the Gulf Arab monarchies, according to a new report released here Friday by the Rand Corporation.

BUENOS AIRES, May 17 (IPS) - Thirty-seven years after leading the coup d'etat that ushered in the most brutal dictatorship in the history of Argentina, former army commander Jorge Rafael Videla died in a common prison Friday.