News headlines in July 2014

SAN BERNARDINO CHALCHIHUAPAN, Mexico, Jul 31 (IPS) - People in this town in the central Mexican state of Puebla found out the hard way that protesting can be deadly.

WASHINGTON, Jul 31 (IPS) - As the White House prepares to host more than 40 African heads of state for the upcoming U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit, civil society actors from the U.S., Africa and the international community are urging the Barack Obama administration to use the summit as an opportunity to more thoroughly address some of Africa's most pressing human rights violations.

RIO DE JANEIRO, Jul 31 (IPS) - Every day, Celina Maria de Souza rises before dawn, and after taking four of her children to the nearby school she climbs down the 180 steps that separate her home on a steep hill from the flat part of this Brazilian city, to go to her job as a domestic. In the evening she makes the long trek back up.

YAOUNDE, Jul 31 (IPS) - Motari Hamissou used to get along well with his pupils at the government primary school in Sabga, an area in Bamenda, the capital of Cameroon's North West Region.

In the past, Hamissou also lived in peace with his neighbours. No one was bothered by his long, thick beard or the veil his wife, Aisha Hamissou, wore, or the religion they followed.

WASHINGTON, Jul 31 (IPS) - A key committee of the World Bank's governing board Wednesday spurned appeals to revise a  draft policy statement that, according to nearly 100 civil-society groups, risks rolling back several decades of reforms designed to protect indigenous populations, the poor and sensitive ecosystems.

BEIRUT, Jul 30 (IPS) - Food price rises as far back as 2008 are believed to be the partial culprits behind the instability plaguing Arab countries and they have become increasingly aware of the importance of securing food needs through an international strategy of land grabs which are often detrimental to local populations.

UNITED NATIONS, Jul 30 (IPS) - A normally quiet second-grade student, Yuan Yuan* suffers from a mild mental disorder that impacts her ability to learn and communicate. Her father, also mentally disabled, left her several years ago to find work in the city and his family hasn't heard from him since. Unable to support the family, her mother also left and never returned.

CARACAS, Jul 30 (IPS) - Venezuela is gearing up to pass a new law to combat discrimination against people living with HIV/AIDS, in a country where the epidemic claims nearly 4,000 lives and infects 11,000 mainly young people every year, including increasing numbers of women.

NEW YORK, Jul 30 (IPS) - Amidst an exodus of some 100,000 people from the conflict-torn eastern Ukraine, ongoing fighting in the urban strongholds of Donetsk and Luhansk between Ukrainian soldiers and separatist rebels, and talk of more sanctions against Russia, it is hard to focus on the more subtle changes taking place in this eastern European nation.

WASHINGTON, Jul 30 (IPS) - Pro-Israel activists assembled a huge crowd and a long list of congressional leaders and diplomats to declare their unconditional support for Israel's military operations in the Gaza Strip on Monday, largely downplaying  tensions between Jerusalem and Washington.