News headlines in November 2013

BHUBANESWAR, India, Nov 30 (IPS) - More than a month after Cyclone Phailin battered Orissa, tribes in the eastern Indian coastal state are still feeling its wrath. Besides the damage to their homes and hearths, it has also meant a loss of their traditional food.

GEORGETOWN, Guyana, Nov 30 (IPS) - It's a dirty, smelly business, but wastewater is gaining prominence across the Caribbean as countries from Jamaica in the west to Guyana in the south increasingly recognise its effects on the environment and the importance of improving its management.

DOHA, Nov 30 (IPS) - According to statistics from the United Nations, one in five cases a year of honour killings internationally comes from India. Of the 5000 cases reported internationally, 1000 are from India. Non-governmental organisations put the number at four times this figure. They claim it is around 20,000 cases globally every year.

PHNOM PENH, Nov 30 (IPS) - An array of colourful quarter pipes, bank ramps and a fun box come to life as a clutch of Cambodian youngsters do balancing tricks, kick-flips and kick turns. The all-girl session at a skating facility near the Russian Market here is facilitated by 20-year-old Kov Chansangva, popularly known as Tin.

ASUNCION, Nov 29 (IPS) - A few hours before a human chain was to surround the Paraguayan Congress on Thursday, Senator Víctor Bogado, accused of fraud and misuse of public funds, was stripped of his parliamentary immunity from prosecution.

Nov 29 (IPS) - The Arab world is widely perceived as blessed with an embarrassment of riches: an abundance of oil (Saudi Arabia), one of the world's highest per capita incomes (Qatar), and home to the world's tallest luxury building (United Arab Emirates).

CAPE TOWN, South Africa, Nov 29 (IPS) - Specialised sexual offences courts could make a dent in South Africa's staggeringly high rape rate by speeding up the turnover of rape cases and thereby convicting more rapists and encouraging more survivors to report the crime. However, unless the South African government puts its money where its mouth is, the so-called "rape courts" will amount to nothing more than a "nice idea".

WASHINGTON, Nov 29 (IPS) - From the Middle East to the East China Sea, the last week's events have offered a particularly vivid example of the much-heralded shift in foreign policy priorities under the administration of President Barack Obama.

TOKYO, Nov 29 (IPS) - For years, it was the power chamber at the headquarters of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) in Geneva - the Director General's Conference Room, more popularly known as the Green Room, where a handful of delegates would gather for important discussions and meetings.

PESHAWAR, Nov 29 (IPS) - A blockade of NATO supplies to Afghanistan by cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan's party has ended up hitting Pakistan's legal trade with its neighbour, say local traders and truckers.