News headlines in February 2015

HARARE, Feb 28 (IPS) - Deforestation is haunting the African continent as industrial growth paves over public commons and puts more hectares into private hands.

SAN JUAN Y MARTÍNEZ, Cuba, Feb 28 (IPS) - "We have to wait and see," "There isn't a lot of talk about it," are the responses from tobacco workers in this rural area in western Cuba when asked about the prospect of an opening of the U.S. market to Cuban cigars.

UNITED NATIONS, Feb 28 (IPS) - The health-related resignation of an International Criminal Court (ICC) judge has paved the way for Asia-Pacific governments to improve their legal representation in the international legal system, said the ICC coalition on Thursday.

UNITED NATIONS, Feb 27 (IPS) - This weekend, at the invitation of President Michelle Bachelet and myself, women leaders from across the world are meeting in Santiago de Chile. We will applaud their achievements. We will remind ourselves of their contributions. And we will chart a way forward to correct the historical record. History has not been fair to women – but then, women usually didn't write it.

UNITED NATIONS, Feb 27 (IPS) - Organised criminals in Mexico are forcing the media to stop reporting on crime, by turning their violence against journalists.

RIO DE JANEIRO, Feb 27 (IPS) - In Brazil, one of the countries with the highest concentration of land ownership in the world, some 200,000 peasant farmers still have no plot of their own to farm – a problem that the first administration of President Dilma Rousseff did little to resolve.

MUMBAI, Feb 27 (IPS) - "One time my husband started slapping me hard on the face because I had not cooked the rice to his satisfaction," Suruchi* told IPS. "He hit me so hard that my infant daughter fell from my arms to the ground."

PHILADELPHIA, Feb 27 (IPS) - There is a currently popular idea in Washington, D.C. that the United States ought to be doing more to quash the recently born Islamic States of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), because if we don't, they will send terrorists to plague our lives.

ROME, Feb 27 (IPS) - When I am asked whether Europe is still a relevant "protagonist" in the modern world, I always answer that there is no doubt about it. For a long time now the continent has been shaken by financial crises, internal security strategy crises – including wars – and instability within its borders, which definitely make it a protagonist in world affairs. 

GAZA CITY, Feb 27 (IPS) - The beautiful Mediterranean Sea laps gently onto the white sandy beach near Gaza City's port. Fishing boats dot the beach as fishermen tend to their boats and fix their nets.