News headlines in May 2013, page 13

UNITED NATIONS, May 17 (IPS) - In the late 19^th century, Russian playwright Anton Chekhov famously touted one golden rule for dramatic productions: if you show your audience a loaded gun in the first act, that gun must go off by the last.

SAN CRISTÓBAL, Venezuela, May 17 (IPS) - A Venezuelan movie about a young deaf woman who is sexually abused by her stepfather, "Brecha en el silencio" (Breach in the Silence), took top prize at the second Colombia-Venezuela film festival.

RIO DE JANEIRO, May 17 (IPS) - As Brazil prepares to host several sporting mega-events, human rights abuses and authoritarian interventions by the authorities are going on behind the scenes, favouring major urbanisation projects and stadium remodelling, a study says.

CAPANNORI, Italy, May 17 (IPS) - Capannori, a rural town in the Italian province of Lucca, in Tuscany, boasts a proud history. Six years ago, it became a trendsetter and leader, not just in Italy but throughout all of Europe, as the continent's first Zero Waste town.

JOHANNESBURG, May 17 (IPS) - In December 2011, 159 governments and major international organisations recognised the central role of civil society in development and promised to create an "enabling" operating environment for the non-profit sector.

UNITED NATIONS, May 17 (IPS) - Migratory birds, which play an important role in the complex web of life known as ecosystem services, are under threat as never before, with some species facing extinction within the next decade.

DEIR GHASSANEH, Occupied West Bank, May 17 (IPS) - A reddish-brown dome sits atop an ancient stone house, used hundreds of years ago for prayer. It peeks out from the surrounding trees as the rolling green valleys and hills of the central West Bank stretch out into the distance.

WASHINGTON, May 17 (IPS) - With casualties in the long-running conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) now surpassing every conflict since World War II, U.S. policymakers and advocates are stepping up campaigns to raise awareness and push legislation aimed at encouraging new negotiations, assisting in government reforms, and pressuring the neighbouring countries that have propped up the DRC's government.

KABUL, May 17 (IPS) - While global attention is fixed on the scheduled pullout of U.S. and NATO troops from Afghanistan in 2014, women here have a much more immediate concern: how will they survive another day at work?

SOUTHERN LIBYA, May 17 (IPS) - Kaltoum Saleh, 18, is elated to graduate from her overcrowded high school in the remote Saharan town of Ubari, near the Algerian border.