News headlines in March 2016, page 8

UNITED NATIONS, Mar 08 (IPS) - As the world celebrates International Women's Day March 8, the International Parliamentary Union (IPU) revealed a disappointing low for women's participation in parliament.

Syracuse, NY, USA, Mar 08 (IPS) - It is time to "celebrate" International Women's Day (IWY) again. Celebrating women sounds like a positive, upbeat action. We can note women's increasing roles in government, in business, and as leaders of civil society. We can also describe how women are the backbone of every community and virtually every family.

MAMNA, India, Mar 08 (IPS) - Prema Bai, 58, bends her head and pushes hard her wheelchair on the village road. In the early afternoon, the village of Mamna appears almost deserted although it is home to 742 families and is located in Uttar Pradesh - India's largest and most populated state. Thanks to a severe drought, every man and woman under 50 has fled Mamna in recent weeks, leaving behind the elderly and women with very young children. "They thought we were like cattle, a burden in this hard time because we only eat but yield no returns," says Bai whose two sons and their wives also migrated to Agra -- a city 255 km away -- to work in a brick kiln.

ROME, Mar 07 (IPS) - On International Women's Day newspapers and radio shows are filled with women's voices. Yet too often the media's attention is fleeting.

VIENNA, Austria, Mar 07 (IPS) - In 1911, more than one million men and women attended rallies to commemorate the first International Women's Day. Demonstrators advocated for an end to gender discrimination and for the promotion of women's rights to work, vote, receive an education, and hold public office.

UNITED NATIONS, Mar 07 (IPS) - The Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Organisation (CTBTO), based in Vienna, will soon install two new monitoring stations in Ecuador.

CTBTOs Executive Secretary Dr Lassina Zerbo told IPS the two stations in Ecuador, RN 24 and IS 20, "will brings us an important step closer to the completion of the International Monitoring System – the network that monitors the globe 24/7 for signs of nuclear explosive testing."

Kampala / New York, Mar 07 (IPS) - Anna Gamusi, has been growing ‘matooke' - plantains - for over 20 years. She originally learnt how to grow them in her home village of Busolwe in Eastern Uganda, but says that they are no longer grown there.

NAIROBI, Kenya, Mar 07 (IPS) - Jonathan Tipapa is a nine year-old boy whose daily journey to and from school exposes him to many dangers that have seen him come close to dropping out of school -- like many of his friends who can be seen running after cows even on school days. He attends Enkutoto primary school in the expansive Narok South Constituency in the Rift Valley region, approximately 70 miles from the capital Nairobi.

PANAMA CITY, Mar 04 (IPS) - When the new locks of the expanded Panama Canal begin operations, they will do so amidst numerous challenges, because of the storm clouds hanging over the global economy, especially China. But local authorities and experts are not worried about the possible impact on the expanded canal.

DUBLIN, Mar 04 (IPS) - "Planet 50-50 by 2030: Step It Up for Gender Equality" – the theme of this year's International Women's Day serves as a timely reminder that, despite incremental progress of recent years and the ambition of the new global development agenda, we must redouble efforts to achieve a world underpinned by gender equality. All women must be empowered to realise their full and equal rights. But what does it actually mean to step it up for gender equality?