News headlines in 2015, page 24

NEW DELHI, Sep 18 (IPS) - Prime Minister Narendra Modi had a meeting with India Inc. to discuss the global economic crisis and how the country can seize the emerging opportunities. The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government does believe this crisis is indeed an opportunity as the economy's fundamentals remain strong.

OXFORD, Sep 18 (IPS) - In their attempts to sabotage Iran's nuclear program, the United States and Israel have resorted over time to a number of unorthodox, illegal and in some cases criminal methods to achieve their aims. They have included the following:

WASHINGTON DC, Sep 18 (IPS) - Indonesia's Ministry of Environment and Forestry took a step forward on the road to Paris when it published a draft of its new climate plan, or Intended Nationally Determined Contribution (INDC), for public consultation on Sep. 1, 2015. As the world's sixth-largest emitter of greenhouse gases, Indonesia's climate commitment is an important piece of the global response to climate change.

MONTROSE, Pennsylvania, USA, Sep 17 (IPS) - U.S. activist Vera Scroggins has been sued five times by the oil industry, and since October 2013 she has faced a restraining order banning her from any properties owned or leased by one of the biggest players in Pennsylvania's natural gas rush, Cabot Oil & Gas Corporation.

GENEVA, Sep 17 (IPS) - As a growing number of countries face the possibility of debt crises, the United Nations General Assembly has approved a set of nine basic principles for sovereign debt restructuring processes in an effort to provide for debt restructuring that is fair and economically sustainable.

ABU DHABI, Sep 17 (IPS) - In response to suggestions that the Gulf states are doing littleor nothing to help Syrians fleeing their civil war, the Government of the United Arab Emirates has announced that it has take a broad range of supportive actions to alleviate the suffering of the Syrian population and to care for Syrian refugees in Syria and abroad, reports WAM.

NEW YORK, Sep 17 (IPS) - With improving life styles, advances in medical science and technologies and declining mortality rates at older ages, the 21st century is witnessing the remarkable rise of centenarians, people who are aged 100 years or older.

PORTO ALEGRE, Sep 17 (IPS) - The Lula development model that lifted 35 million people out of poverty and raised living standards for another 20 million people during the governments of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (2003-2011) has run its course.

UNITED NATIONS, Sep 16 (IPS) - The Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT), which was adopted by the U.N. General Assembly back in 1996, has still not come into force for one primary reason: eight key countries have either refused to sign or have held back their ratifications.

ROME, Sep 16 (IPS) - A new post-2015 international development agenda is to be officially launched next week at a U.N. summit in New York. The ambitious list of 17 development goals includes a call for a revitalization of the global partnership for sustainable development.