News headlines in October 2014, page 9

WASHINGTON, Oct 15 (IPS) - Despite the public's persistent war weariness, the U.S. defence budget – the world's biggest by far – may be set to rise again, according to a new study released here this week by the Center for International Policy (CIP).

PARAMARIBO, Suriname, Oct 15 (IPS) - Farmers in the Caribbean are being encouraged to make more use of farm apps and other forms of ICT in an effort to increase the knowledge available for making sound, profitable farming decisions.

WASHINGTON, Oct 15 (IPS) - As the international media is mesmerised by the Islamic State's advance on Kobani or ‘Ayn al-Arab on the Syrian-Turkish border, Arab states and the United States would need to look beyond Kobani's fate and the Islamic State's territorial successes and defeats.

UNITED NATIONS, Oct 15 (IPS) - When political leaders from climate-threatened Small Island Developing States (SIDS) addressed the U.N. General Assembly last month, there was one recurring theme: the urgent need to protect the high seas and preserve the world's marine biodiversity.

ATHENS, Oct 15 (IPS) - As the cyclonic storm Hudhud ripped through India's eastern state of Andhra Pradesh, home to two million people, at a land speed of over 190 kilometres per hour on Sunday, it destroyed electricity and telephone infrastructure, damaged the airport, and laid waste to thousands of thatched houses, as well as rice fields, banana plantations and sugarcane crops throughout the state.

GENEVA, Oct 15 (IPS) - Regional trade agreements have grown very rapidly in recent years, and today the World Trade Organisation (WTO) has been notified that 253 are in force.

ROME, Oct 15 (IPS) - It does not make the headlines, but 2014 is the International Year of Family Farming (IYFF) and family farming will be centre-stage at this year's World Food Day on Oct. 16 at the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO).

NAIROBI, Oct 15 (IPS) - For the past 40 years Josephine Kakiyi, 55, has been cultivating maize, beans and vegetables on her small plot of land in the remote area of Kwa Vonza, in Kitui County, eastern Kenya.

WASHINGTON, Oct 15 (IPS) - Lawmakers here are urging President Barack Obama to put transparency in the extractives sector at the centre of an upcoming trip to Myanmar.

PYEONGCHANG, Republic of Korea, Oct 14 (IPS) - The remarkable biodiversity of the countries of the Caribbean, already under stress from human impacts like land use, pollution, invasive species, and over-harvesting of commercially valuable species, now faces an additional threat from climate change.