News headlines in February 2014, page 2

WASHINGTON, Feb 27 (IPS) - National governments across the globe have taken surprisingly robust action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, putting in place policies that researchers say collectively offer a strong foundation for ongoing international climate negotiations.

MOGADISHU, Feb 27 (IPS) - Residents of Mogadishu have raised concerns about their safety after the Somali army recently fired hundreds of disgruntled army soldiers, many of whom are believed to still be in possession of their arms.

WASHINGTON, Feb 27 (IPS) - The unexpected resignation of Hazem al-Biblawi, Egypt's interim prime minister, and his government this week and the appointment of Ibrahim Mehlib, a Mubarak-era industrialist, as a new prime minister seem to pave the way for Field Marshal Abdul Fattah al-Sisi's anticipated presidential bid.

Feb 27 (IPS) - It starts out like any gymnastics class: A teacher guides a roomful of women through stretching and breathing exercises. The yoga, ballet and tai chi moves train pelvic muscles, the stomach and legs.

PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, Feb 27 (IPS) - Industrial engineer Ancel Bhagwandeen thinks that growing your food indoors is a great way to protect crops from the stresses of climate change. So he developed a hydroponic system that "leverages the nanoclimates in houses so that the house effectively protects the produce the same way it protects us," he says.

SAN SALVADOR, Bahamas, Feb 27 (IPS) - It is now generally accepted that the North-South divide created at the end of the colonial era and the coalition of New Countries against the powerful North of the world ended with the arrival of globalisation. There are now areas of the Third World inside the North, and areas of the North inside the South.

JUBA, Feb 27 (IPS) - Gatmai Deng lost three family members in the violence that erupted in South Sudan on Dec. 15 and lasted until the end of January. And he blames their deaths on the government's failure to use the country's vast oil revenues to create a better life for its almost 11 million people.

SEOUL, Feb 27 (IPS) - If the North Korea of the 1990s was seen as a starving nation that produced an exodus of hungry people, then the picture should be even gloomier now – six years after it stopped receiving South Korea's generous aid. But it's not. The nation of 24 million people, widely said to be the most secretive in the world and a nuclear threat, appears to have weathered the years well.

ZANZIBAR, Tanzania, Feb 26 (IPS) - The story of Feiza*, an 18-year-old girl who was abducted and raped, is a bleak testament to the worsening plight of women in Tanzania's semi-autonomous archipelago, Zanzibar.

LONDONDERRY, Dominica, Feb 26 (IPS) - When Dean, the first storm of the 2007 Atlantic hurricane season, lashed Dominica on Aug. 16, it left behind a trail of destruction, claimed the lives of a mother and son, and decimated the island's vital banana industry.