News headlines in May 2014, page 5

ST. AUGUSTINE, Florida, May 23 (IPS) - Japanese Buddhist and president of Soka Gakkai International (SGI) Daisaku Ikeda's Peace Proposal 2014 elevated my focus from the daily news to my longer term concerns for more peaceful, equitable and sustainable human societies to assure our common future. These broader concerns are now shared by millions of humans who have transcended purely personal, local and nationalistic goals and become prototypical global citizens.

WASHINGTON, May 23 (IPS) - Democratic governance offers a viable option for developing countries to achieve economic growth and inclusion, yet this doesn't need to follow the Western model, new research released here this week suggests.

NEW YORK, May 23 (IPS) - The Congress Party took a beating in India's recent parliamentary election and has been now sidelined by the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (Indian People's Party, or BJP).

MALAGA, Spain, May 22 (IPS) - Spain is experiencing a resurgence of hemp, one of the species of cannabis with the lowest THC content, which has been used for millennia to produce textile, medicinal and food products.

HONOLULU, Hawaii, U.S., May 22 (IPS) - The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Council announced Wednesday that the 2016 World Conservation Congress (WCC) will meet in Hawaii - the first time in its 66-year history that the world's largest conservation conference will be hosted by the United States.

WASHINGTON, May 22 (IPS) - Pending legislation calling for U.S. President Barack Obama to impose sanctions against key Venezuelan officials is unlikely to defuse the ongoing crisis there and could prove counter-productive, according to both the administration and independent experts here.

FREEPORT, Trinidad and Tobago, May 22 (IPS) - Erle Rahaman-Noronha is not a revolutionary, not in any radical sense at least. He is not even that exciting. In truth, Rahaman-Noronha is merely a man with a shovel, a small farm, and a big dream. But that dream is poised to conquer the Caribbean.

SAN JOSE, May 21 (IPS) - Eight months after it was introduced in the Costa Rican legislature, a bill to create a framework law on climate change is faltering after undergoing modifications that have run into criticism from environmentalists and experts – a situation made even more complex by the recent change of government.

COLOMBO, May 21 (IPS) - It has been five years since Sri Lanka's brutal three-decades-long civil conflict came to an end in May 2009, but for the country's youth, true national reconciliation is still a long way off.

ST. JOHN’S, Antigua, May 21 (IPS) - Climate change is forcing the nine-member Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) to choose between expending scarce resources to deal with its impact or other pressing development goals.