News headlines in February 2014, page 3

NEW YORK, Feb 26 (IPS) - A nurse helps an old man up from his chair. Holding onto her arms, he steps blindly forward, trusting her to lead him to his spot at the lunch table.

UNITED NATIONS, Feb 26 (IPS) - An interim human rights report released by the beleaguered U.N. peacekeeping mission in South Sudan is being tentatively hailed by rights groups and observers who have pressured the mission to be more transparent with its findings.

NAIROBI, Feb 26 (IPS) - Ben Okoth, 45, was born and raised in Kibera, the largest urban slum in Africa, situated just outside of Nairobi, Kenya's capital. Over the years, he has encountered many non-governmental organisations (NGOs) working to improve the plight of the poor who live here.

PESHAWAR, Pakistan, Feb 26 (IPS) - They are contraband, yet a large number of Pakistanis have come to depend on drugs made in India and smuggled into Pakistan. Patients as well as doctors say these are cheap and effective, even as law enforcers look the other way.

NEW YORK, Feb 26 (IPS) - The Pine Ridge Reservation of the Lakota Nation, in the midwest of the United States, is one of the most abandoned places in the country and in the world.

MEXICO CITY, Feb 25 (IPS) - The arrest of the head of the Sinaloa drug cartel, Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán, will not affect drug trafficking in Mexico, but it presents an opportunity to change the country's drug policy, experts told IPS.

UNITED NATIONS, Feb 25 (IPS) - An inflow of Russian-made weapons. Political and military support from Iran and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah. Sharp dissension among fractious rebel groups. And the unyielding loyalty of the armed forces.

Feb 25 (IPS) - If psychosis is a loss of contact with reality, the current status of nuclear disarmament can best be described as psychotic.

ABIDJAN, Feb 25 (IPS) - Armand Konan stood in front of the Palais des Sports, a stadium in Abidjan's popular neighbourhood, Treichville, selling videos and speeches of former Ivorian President Laurent Gbagbo. "People need to remember what our president said...He is our president. And we want him back," Konan told IPS.

KAMPALA, Feb 25 (IPS) - Uganda's gays are bracing themselves for a spate of arrests and harassment as the country's draconian anti-gay bill was signed into law by President Yoweri Museveni on Monday, Feb. 24.