News headlines in September 2016, page 6

UNITED NATIONS, Sep 14 (IPS) - Next week's landmark UN summit on refugees and migrants was supposed to help resettle one in ten refugees, instead UN member states have settled for vague gestures, including a campaign to end xenophobia.

SANTA RITA, Brazil, Sep 14 (IPS) - Domingo Mendes da Silva has lost track of how many visitors he has received at his 10-hectare farm in northwest Brazil. He estimates "more than 500," including aquaculture technicians, government officials, peasant farmers, journalists and other people interested in fish farming.

UNITED NATIONS, Sep 14 (IPS) - The importance of education in the promotion of peace, sustainable development and human dignity, and the prevention of violent extremism, was the focus of a Global Citizenship Education Seminar at UN headquarters in New York on Friday September 9.

MUDJA/BIGANIRO, Sep 14 (IPS) - It is late afternoon when a light drizzle begins to fall over a group of young men seated together in Mudja, a village about 20 kilometres north of Goma on the outskirts of the Virunga National Park. Mudja is home to a community of around 40 families of indigenous Bambuti, also known as ‘pygmies.'*

UNITED NATIONS, Sep 13 (IPS) - UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, one of the strongest advocates of press freedom, is facing two politically-sensitive issues which are beyond his decision-making jurisdiction: a proposal for a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) aimed at providing journalists with the right to access information, and the creation of a UN Special Envoy ensuring the safety of journalists worldwide.

HONOLULU, Hawaii, USA, Sep 12 (IPS) - "In San Lorenzo they cut down the jungle to plant African oil palms. The only reason they didn't expand more was that indigenous people managed to curb the spread," Ecuadorean activist Santiago Levy said during the World Conservation Congress.

HONOLULU, Hawaii, Sep 11 (IPS) - The international conservation community has taken an important step towards saving African elephants from mass slaughter by voting at a major congress to call on all governments to ban their domestic trade in ivory.

Jinja, UGANDA, Sep 11 (IPS) - Mambera Hellem tells her friends and neighbours about all forms of contraception, yet despite their high HIV risk she knows many of the women she speaks to will not use condoms.

HONOLULU, Hawaii, Sep 10 (IPS) - A major environmental conference of governments and NGOs has called on nations to set aside at least 30 percent of the world's oceans as "highly protected" areas by 2030, but delegates said opposition from China, Japan and South Africa had seriously undermined chances of success.

YAOUNDE, Cameroon, Sep 10 (IPS) - The two-day Second Africa Rural Development Forum concluded Friday with renewed calls to economically empower young people, many of whom are leaving the resource-rich continent and migrating to places like Europe under very risky circumstances.