News headlines in December 2013

PORT OF SPAIN, Dic 31 (IPS) - In the southwest peninsula of Cedros, one of Trinidad's driest areas, Jenson Alexander grows the cocoa used for many years by the British chocolate giant Cadbury.

PESHAWAR, Pakistan, Dic 31 (IPS) - A mock poll held in Peshawar earlier this week could clean up the face of elections in Pakistan. The Pakistan Tehreek Insaf Party led by former cricketer Imran Khan tested biometric polling methods to eliminate election fraud.

MEXICO CITY, Dic 31 (IPS) - The Terra 123 oil and gas well in the southeastern Mexican state of Tabasco was in flames since late October, just 1.5 km from a community of 1,500 Oxiacaque indigenous villagers, who were never evacuated.

NAIROBI, Dic 31 (IPS) - Kenyais facing its greatest challenge as weather patterns are starting to significantly affect food production. And experts are blaming the low adaptive capacity of the farming sector on an excess of policy and institutional frameworks that are silent on both climate change and agriculture.

LAHORE, Pakistan, Dic 31 (IPS) - A new policy by the Pakistani government to regulate foreign-funded non-governmental organisations (NGOs) has come in for sharp criticism from the social sector, with many saying it could stifle rights-based groups and affect crucial services provided to the needy.

HAVANA, Dic 30 (IPS) - The landscape has changed in Cuba's cities and towns: where once only political slogans could be seen, today lighted signs are cropping up to advertise the best of local and international gastronomy and air-conditioned lodgings – signs of an emerging private sector that was inconceivable until recently.

KINGSTOWN, St. Vincent, Dic 30 (IPS) - Ralph Gonsalves fought to hold back tears as he shared how his cousin was killed the night before Christmas.

HAVANA, Dic 30 (IPS) - Cuba's state education monopoly is increasingly sharing space with private operators, including churches and teachers working as tutors, which are filling in gaps and providing knowledge that has become necessary as a result of the country's economic reforms, such as business management courses.

PESHAWAR, Pakistan, Dic 30 (IPS) - Ahmed Nawaz, a 55-year-old farmer in northwestern Pakistan's Swat valley, rues the day the Taliban arrived in his beautiful land, known for its rolling mountains, lush fields and blossoming orchards. "The earth became barren," he says.

MINDOUROU, Cameroon, Dic 30 (IPS) - Essomba Dominique, a Baka man from Mindourou in Cameroon's East Region, sits dulled-eyed in front of his hut, known in the Baka language as the ‘mongoulou'.