News headlines in March 2016, page 5

UNITED NATIONS, Mar 19 (IPS) - When the only female candidate failed in her attempt to become UN Secretary-General back in late 2006, an Asian diplomat weighed in with an upgraded Biblical quote: "It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle", he said, "than for a woman to become the Secretary-General of the United Nations."

AÑELO, Argentina, Mar 19 (IPS) - The dizzying growth of Añelo, a town in southwest Argentina, driven by the production of shale oil and gas in the Vaca Muerta geological reserve, has slowed down due to the plunge in global oil prices, which has put a curb on local development and is threatening investment and employment.

YEREVAN, ARMENIA, Mar 18 (IPS) - Armenia is prone to natural disasters. Eight out of every 10 citizens are likely to experience a natural disaster at some point during their lifetimes – an earthquake, landslide, hailstorm or flooding. Each year, the country incurs $33 million in damage from such disasters.

YAOUNDE, Cameroon, Mar 18 (IPS) - "They have reduced the quantity of food they used to give us and we still do not know why. But we are managing. We are refugees and we have no choice. All they give us is rice and some soya beans" John Guige, a Nigerian resident and primary school teacher in the Minawao refugee camp in Cameroon's Far North region, told IPS.

UNITED NATIONS, Mar 17 (IPS) - "When it comes to peace talks, women have a special stake," said Gloria Steinem while discussing current peace talks in the Middle East.

Steinem, a prominent activist, joined the 60th annual session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) as part of Donor Direct Action, an NGO connecting women's rights activists to donors.

ROME, Mar 17 (IPS) - The recent German elections went as predicted.. A new right wing, xenophobe party, Alternative for Germany, AFD, has emerged with force, and will bein national Parliament in 2017.This development is unprecedented in German politics since the end of the second world war, and it is widely viewedas part of a general trend - the rise of populist and xenophobe forces all over Europe.

Lund, Sweden, Mar 17 (IPS) - The EUropean Union – a criminal?

The EU that has peace as it's top goal and received Nobel's Peace Prize?

The EU with Schengen and Dublin?

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia, Mar 17 (IPS) - The persisting humanitarian crisis of the Rohingya minority in Myanmar has been a global concern after two bouts of organised mass violence against them in 2012. While the Rohingya persecution has been going on for nearly four decades, Myanmar's reforms launched in 2011 facilitated the international media's coverage of the mass violence.

MADRID, Mar 16 (IPS) - Besieged by US, UK, French, Russian and Syrian war crafts and ground intelligence, both in Syria and Iraq, the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (Daesh from its original acronym in Arabic) has reportedly been searching for a new base in the North of Africa, specifically in Libya, in what has been called the "Colombian Triangle."

RUMURUTI, Nairobi, Mar 16 (IPS) - For two decades, Dickson Kamau only grew maize on his 0.5 hectare (ha) of land earning himself the nickname Kamau wa mbembe or Kamau who owns maize in his native Kikuyu language.