News headlines in February 2015, page 6

UNITED NATIONS, Feb 16 (IPS) - The future of the U.N. African Union Hybrid Mission in Darfur (UNAMID) could depend largely on determining what exactly happened in the town of Tabit in Northern Darfur at the end of October last year.

GENEVA, Feb 16 (IPS) - "The U.N. Committee on Enforced Disappearances is not a court, and I say this to avoid any misunderstanding," German expert Rainer Huhle said while presenting the committee's recommendations to the government of Mexico, where the problem has reached epidemic proportions.

MANNAR, Sri Lanka, Feb 16 (IPS) - It is a hot, steamy day in Sri Lanka's northwestern Mannar District. Mid-day temperatures are reaching 34 degrees Celsius, and the tarred road is practically melting under the sun.

GENEVA, Feb 16 (IPS) - After a series of crises with severe economic and social consequences in the 1990s and early 2000s, emerging and developing economies have become even more closely integrated into what is widely recognised as an inherently unstable international financial system. 

RAMALLAH, West Bank, Feb 15 (IPS) - Fourteen-year-old Malak al Khatib, one of the youngest Palestinian detainees and one of only a handful of girls, was released from an Israeli prison on Feb. 13 into the arms of emotional family members and supporters after being incarcerated in an Israeli prison for two months on "security offences".

NEW DELHI, Feb 14 (IPS) - Despite being one of the world's fastest expanding economies, projected to clock seven-percent GDP growth in 2017, India – a nation of 1.2 billion – is trailing behind on many vital social development indices while also hosting one-fourth of the world's poor.

GENEVA, Feb 13 (IPS) - Food security has become a key issue of the U.N. climate negotiations this week in Geneva as a number of countries and observers raised concerns that recent advances in Lima are in jeopardy.

BUENOS AIRES, Feb 13 (IPS) - In the movie "A Day Without a Mexican", the mysterious disappearance of all Mexicans brings the state of California to a halt. Would the same thing happen in some Latin American countries if immigrants from neighbouring countries, who suffer the same kind of discrimination, went missing?

UNITED NATIONS, Feb 13 (IPS) - As the Iranian nuclear talks hurtle towards a Mar. 24 deadline, there is renewed debate among activists about the blatant Western double standards underlying the politically-heated issue, and more importantly, the resurrection of a longstanding proposal for a Middle East free from weapons of mass destruction (WMD).

COPENHAGEN, Feb 13 (IPS) - Right now, the United Nations is negotiating one of the world's potentially most powerful policy documents. It can influence trillions of dollars, pull hundreds of millions out of poverty and hunger, reduce violence and improve education — essentially make the world a better place. But much depends on this being done well.