News headlines in February 2014, page 4

KIEV, Feb 25 (IPS) - Ukrainians are facing years of pain and upheaval if the country moves towards closer EU integration – or the prospect of the country being left to "rot" if they do not, experts say following the weekend's revolution.

WASHINGTON, Feb 25 (IPS) - Signalling a somewhat more modest global U.S. military posture, Pentagon chief Chuck Hagel Monday called for sharp reductions in the size of the U.S. Army, the service that has borne the brunt of the occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan over the past dozen years.

WASHINGTON, Feb 25 (IPS) - The Group of 20 (G20) industrialised and emerging economies on Sunday formally expressed frustration with the ongoing inability of the United States to approve a major reform package that would see governance at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) shift more towards developing countries.

UNITED NATIONS, Feb 24 (IPS) - On Dec. 29, 2013, just over a month before the third anniversary of the start of the Egyptian revolution that ended the 30-year rule of Hosni Mubarak, three high-profile journalists for Al Jazeera English were arrested in their hotel suite in Cairo.

Feb 24 (IPS) - The idea sounds like harebrained science-fiction, but the accelerated retreat of glaciers due to global warming and the effects of mining is leading scientists to seek to restore or recreate these valuable reservoirs of fresh water.

MALAGA, Spain, Feb 24 (IPS) - The pursuit of universal jurisdiction in Spain is drawing to a close because of a bill that will entail the dismissal of over a dozen criminal investigations in the country's courts and will make it very difficult to open new cases of crimes against humanity.

Feb 24 (IPS) - As the Somali government plans to launch a new military campaign to wipe out the Islamic extremist group, Al-Shabaab, from its strongholds in this Horn of Africa nation, experts say that its Somalia's innocent who live in areas controlled by the group who will suffer the most.

LEH, India, Feb 24 (IPS) - Surendar Mohan, catering assistant at the residential school Jawahar Navodiya Vidyalya looks thankfully up at the sun on this cold high-altitude desert in northwest India.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, India, Feb 24 (IPS) - Balakrishnan, a labourer from Kochi in the southern Indian state of Kerala, was suffering from oral cancer. He was admitted to the Regional Cancer Centre (RCC) in Thiruvananthapuram. After the first course of radiation therapy, the 60-year-old could not eat or drink because of severe pain and infection in the mouth.

ZURICH, Switzerland, Feb 23 (IPS) - Swiss voters have approved an initiative by the right-wing Swiss People's Party (SVP) aimed at limiting immigration. The result not only threatens the free movement of people, but all agreements between Switzerland and the European Union.