News headlines in March 2015, page 11

UNITED NATIONS, Mar 11 (IPS) - Speaking at a ceremony to honour 10 "extraordinary women" from Asia, Africa, Europe and Latin America for their exceptional courage and leadership in advocating peace, justice, human rights and gender empowerment, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Heather Higginbottom cited the former president of Malawi Dr. Joyce Banda, recognised at the United Nations as a relentless advocate for women's rights.

VIENNA, Mar 11 (IPS) - In the face of the growing number of crises taking place at the same time worldwide, humanitarian aid organisations – many of which have already reached their financial and logistic limits – are in desperate need of global coordination.

UNITED NATIONS, Mar 11 (IPS) - A single image can be more powerful, more descriptive and more potent than an entire essay – ‘ a picture says a thousand words,' as the cliché goes.

CANBERRA, Australia, Mar 11 (IPS) - As conflicts in the Middle East and elsewhere pushed the number of refugees to 13 million last year, the international community is struggling to shoulder the humanitarian responsibility of protecting those fleeing violence and persecution in their homelands.

SYDNEY, Mar 11 (IPS) - With less than a year to go before the United Nation's annual climate change meeting scheduled to take place in Paris in November 2015, citizens and civil society groups are pushing their elected leaders to take stock of national commitments to lower carbon emissions in a bid to cap runaway global warming.

UNITED NATIONS, Mar 10 (IPS) - The global rate of maternal deaths is reducing faster than any time in history, according to a new report presented to the United Nations on Tuesday.

UNITED NATIONS, Mar 10 (IPS) - Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, a creature of the U.N.'s 193 member states and who serves at their will and pleasure, did not hesitate to fault 13 countries that kept women out of their national parliaments and governments in power.

UNITED NATIONS, Mar 10 (IPS) - The government of Guatemala has been praised for a programme helping young women avoid unwanted pregnancies and finish their education.

SÃO PAULO, Mar 10 (IPS) - Six million people in Brazil's biggest city, São Paulo, may at some point find themselves without water. The February rains did not ward off the risk and could even aggravate it by postponing rationing measures which hydrologists have been demanding for the last six months.