News headlines in July 2014, page 12

WASHINGTON, Jul 09 (IPS) - The U.S. government has moved to tackle longstanding patterns of inequitable teacher quality, specifically in terms of how low quality teachers tend to be assigned to poor and marginalised communities across the country.

UNITED NATIONS, Jul 08 (IPS) - The 48 least developed countries (LDCs), described as the poorest of the world's poor, want to be an integral part of the U.N.'s post-2015 development agenda currently under discussion.

CAPE TOWN, Jul 08 (IPS) - Peruse a few reports on global military expenditure and you will not be able to shake the image of the planet as one massive army camp, patrolled by heavily weaponised guards in a plethora of uniforms.

WAESAW, Jul 08 (IPS) - A mix of conservative Catholicism and nationalism has become the predominant view in Polish public debate, with some worrying effects.

HOMS, Syria, Jul 08 (IPS) - Al-Waer, Homs's most populated area and the city's last insurgent holdout, might soon achieve the truce that Hom's Old City saw in May this year when, in an exchange deal, the insurgents left their strongholds.

WASHINGTON, Jul 08 (IPS) - Monday's expulsion order by Bahrain against a visiting senior U.S. official has set back tentative hopes for internal reforms that could reconcile the kingdom's Sunni-led government with its majority Shia community and drawn a sharp protest from Washington.

WASHINGTON, Jul 07 (IPS) - Japan has functioned under its "peace constitution" for nearly 70 years. The distinctive Article 9, which prevents the country from conducting war as a means of resolving international conflict, is showing its age.

WASHINGTON, Jul 07 (IPS) - Landmark new policies that have sharply curtailed U.S. financing for international coal projects may be rolled back, the result of a sudden, polarised fight over a little-known government agency here.

UNITED NATIONS, Jul 07 (IPS) - With 17 months before the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) reach their targets by the December 2015 deadline, the United Nations is trumpeting its limited successes - but with guarded optimism.