News headlines in February 2014

ADDIS ABABA, Feb 28 (IPS) - While wrangling over Central African Republic's (CAR) wealth in natural resources played a role in the country's crisis, its future peace and stability still partly depends on a solution that factors in how to equitably distribute its national wealth.

JOHANNESBURG, Feb 28 (IPS) - "The future is today aged 10 and it's an adolescent girl," Kate Gilmore, deputy executive director of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), said in an interview with IPS in Johannesburg.

WASHINGTON, Feb 28 (IPS) - Civil society activists from five Arab countries are urging the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to ease pressure on their governments to reduce food and fuel subsidies until stronger social-protection schemes and other basic reforms are implemented.

NASSAU, The Bahamas, Feb 28 (IPS) - The lionfish, with its striking russet and white stripes and huge venomous outrigger fins, wasn't hard to spot under a coral reef in 15 feet of clear water. Nor was it a challenge to spear it.

HIGHLANDS, Barbuda, Feb 28 (IPS) - Water rationing has become a way of life for the 1,800 residents of the tiny island of Barbuda, which has been experiencing prolonged dry periods, especially in the Highlands area near the main agricultural lands.

DENUGU, Ghana, Feb 28 (IPS) - Dunwaa Soayare, 45, a smallholder farmer, widow and mother of five had the sort of economic profile that meant she was denied access to credit from Ghana's mainstream banking institutions.

COLOMBO, Feb 28 (IPS) - Sri Lanka is heading into a major crisis under extreme heat, with the rains staying away. Fears are growing of power cuts and interruption to water supply because reservoir levels are running scarily low.

HYDERABAD, India, Feb 28 (IPS) - It was 8.45 pm, and a 22-year-old woman was looking for a cab to go home after a trip to a city mall in India's Hyderabad city. A cab arrived, and the unsuspecting computer engineer got in, little knowing she was stepping into a trap.

ALTO ALEGRE DO PINDARÉ/SÃO LUIS, Brazil, Feb 28 (IPS) - The Carajás railroad, regarded as the most efficient in Brazil, runs a loss-making passenger service for the benefit of the population. But this does little to make amends for its original sin: it was created to export minerals and crosses an area of chronic poverty.

UNITED NATIONS, Feb 28 (IPS) - There was a time when images from war zones featured only battlefields and barracks. As warfare moved into the 20^th century, pictures of embattled urban centres and rural guerilla outposts began to make the rounds.