News headlines in 2015, page 59

PORT OF SPAIN, Jun 23 (IPS) - For a decade, the Water and Sewerage Authority (WASA) of Trinidad and Tobago had been mapping the country's water quality. Five years ago, they started to notice a worrying trend.

BUENOS AIRES, Jun 23 (IPS) - Until not too long ago, young people in Argentina faced a choice: whether to study or drop out and go to work. But now most adolescents in Argentina who work also continue to study – a change that poses new challenges for combating school dropout, repetition and truancy, as well as the circle of poverty.

ROME, Jun 23 (IPS) - After the turn of the century, growth in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) picked up again after a quarter century of near stagnation for most, mainly due to increased world demand for minerals and other natural resources.

UNITED NATIONS, Jun 22 (IPS) - For an entire month beginning in February 2015, a group of between 40 and 50 residents of the Durgapur Village in the northern Indian state of Uttarakhand would gather at the site of a hydroelectric power project being carried out by the state-owned Tehri Hydro Development Corporation (THDC).

UNITED NATIONS, Jun 22 (IPS) - Democracy is on the retreat and authoritarianism is on the rise in more than 96 of the U.N.'s 193 member states, according to a new report released here.

BOSTON, Jun 22 (IPS) - Pope Francis just issued Laudato Si, the first ever encyclical about ecology, which promises to be a highly influential document for years to come. The encyclical, which is the most authoritative teaching document a Pope can issue, delivered a strong message addressing the moral dimension of the severe ecological crisis we have caused with our "throwaway culture" and general disregard for our common home, the Earth.

COLOMBO, Jun 22 (IPS) - The international community must focus its energies immediately on addressing the grave challenges confronting the oceans. With implications for global order and peace, the oceans are also becoming another arena for national rivalry.

ST. AUGUSTINE, Florida, Jun 20 (IPS) - Challenges to advertisers and marketers arose in the past century. Critics deplored the role of cigarette marketers who exploited the aspirations of women by associating smoking with liberation. 

UNITED NATIONS, Jun 19 (IPS) - Since 2002, a year after it invaded Afghanistan, the United States has poured over 100 billion dollars into developing and rebuilding this country of just over 30 million people. This sum is in addition to the trillions spent on U.S. military operations, to say nothing of the deaths of 2,000 service personnel in the space of a single decade.

ALTAMIRA, Brazil, Jun 19 (IPS) - Extensive public health infrastructure and the eradication of malaria will be the most important legacy of the construction of the Belo Monte hydropower dam in Brazil's Amazon jungle for the population affected by the megaproject.