News headlines in June 2013, page 15

WARSAW, Jun 14 (IPS) - Twenty-nine-year-old Andrzej W. and his partner lived for almost a year off of food found in the trash bin of the upscale supermarket Piotr i Pawel in Muranow, a neighbourhood near the centre of the Polish capital Warsaw. And they ate in style.

NAIROBI, Jun 14 (IPS) - On a side street in Nairobi's bustling neighbourhood of Shauri Moyo, Faisal Ngila shouts to street vendors, motorbike taxi drivers and pedestrians. "Do you know taxes are increasing in Kenya?" he asks, handing out flyers urging Kenyans to say "no to Unga (maize flour) tax" by dialling a phone number that will register their signature on a petition.

WASHINGTON, Jun 14 (IPS) - Declaring that U.S. intelligence agencies have concluded that the Syrian government has used chemical weapons against rebel forces, the White House announced Thursday that it will increase "the scope and scale" of assistance it has been providing to the opposition, including direct support to its military arm.

NEW DELHI, Jun 14 (IPS) - India's environmental and food security activists who have so far succeeded in stalling attempts to introduce genetically modified (GM) food crops into this largely farming country now find themselves up against a bill in parliament that could criminalise such opposition.

MANAGUA, Jun 13 (IPS) - A five-century wait could come to an end when the Nicaraguan government grants a concession this year to a Chinese company to build a canal between the Pacific and Atlantic oceans, despite local protests and international scepticism.

WASHINGTON, Jun 13 (IPS) - The nine judges of the U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously Thursday that naturally occurring DNA, including component parts of that genetic material, cannot be patented.

SANTIAGO, Jun 13 (IPS) - The Latin American Centre for Rural Development (RIMISP) is promoting a method for assessing strategies, results, reach and impact of IFAD-funded agricultural projects targeting vulnerable groups in the region.

UXBRIDGE, Canada, Jun 13 (IPS) - Emerging economies such as Mexico and India are shifting energy investments into renewable resources while industrialised countries hesitate, noted two new United Nations reports released Wednesday in Nairobi, Kenya.

WASHINGTON, Jun 13 (IPS) - Experts here are stepping up calls for the U.S. government to remove Cuba from an official list of "state sponsors of terrorism", arguing that the country's presence on the list is anachronistic and makes neither legal nor political sense.

NEW YORK, Jun 13 (IPS) - It started for Ruth when she was 12 years old and for Lowyal when she was 13. After being raped by her mother's boyfriend, Ruth ran away from home and was picked up by a pimp, who sold her into prostitution.