News headlines in May 2013, page 3

KIEV, May 30 (IPS) - As a hepatitis C pandemic rages among drug users and threatens the lives of millions around the world, a group of high-level leaders called today on governments to reform their drug policies and raise awareness about the public health threat of hepatitis C.

MANAGUA, May 30 (IPS) - Conservative sectors in Nicaragua have launched an offensive against the Comprehensive Law Against Violence Toward Women, seeking amendments including an obligation for women victims to negotiate with their abusers, human rights groups reported.

RIO DE JANEIRO, May 30 (IPS) - Brazil, and especially the city of Rio de Janeiro, is experiencing a boom in bus rapid transit (BRT), a public transport system that now has an internationally-recognised quality standard.

WUBA, Northern Ghana, May 30 (IPS) - It is a school day but 13-year-old Musah Razark Adams, a Grade 5 primary school pupil in Wuba, northern Ghana, is standing in a rice field wielding a "koglung" – a sling shot to hit birds with.

WASHINGTON, May 30 (IPS) - Over 300 business, civil society and academic groups here are urging U.S. lawmakers to support early childhood education, months after President Barack Obama hinted that his administration would be pushing for a change in U.S. policy to support universal preschool.

WASHINGTON, May 29 (IPS) - At an annual shareholder meeting held Wednesday, upper-level management for the oil conglomerate Chevron faced renewed questioning over its record-setting political contributions during last year's national election.

KUALA LUMPUR, May 29 (IPS) - "If I am thirsty and want a bottle of Coca-Cola I can get it, no matter where in the world I am. Why can't I get contraceptives or sexual heathcare?" asked Carlos Jimmy Macazana Quispe, a youth representative from Peru currently in Kuala Lumpur for the third edition of the Women Deliver global conference on the "health and well-being of women and girls."

UNITED NATIONS, May 29 (IPS) - When the United States invaded Iraq back in March 2003, one of its primary objectives was to track down and destroy weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) reportedly stockpiled by the regime of President Saddam Hussein.

ATLANTA, Georgia, May 29 (IPS) - During his State of the Union address earlier this year, U.S. President Barack Obama spoke about the need to increase the federal minimum wage, which Congress has not voted to raise since 2007.

TEGUCIGALPA, May 29 (IPS) - The unhealed wounds left by the 2009 coup in Honduras will continue to mark the campaign for the Nov. 24 elections, in which nine parties are participating, four of them new political groups, spanning a wide ideological range.