News headlines in December 2016

OURICURI, Brazil, Dec 30 (IPS) - The drought that has plagued Brazil's semiarid Northeast region since 2012 is already more severe than the 1979-1983 drought, the longest in the 20th century. But prolonged dry spells no longer cause the tragedies of the past.

UNITED NATIONS, Dec 30 (IPS) - Childhood immunisation is one of the safest and most cost-effective health interventions available, yet many of the world's most vulnerable children continue to miss out.

MELBOURNE, Dec 30 (IPS) - Among those leading the fight against the massive Indian-owned Carmichael coal project in Australia's Queensland state is 21-year-old Murrawah Johnson of the Wangan and Jagalingou aboriginal people, the traditional owners of the land where the proposed mine is to be located.

UNITED NATIONS, Dec 30 (IPS) - Governments around the world shut down the internet more than 50 times in 2016 - suppressing elections, slowing economies and limiting free speech.

UNITED NATIONS, Dec 29 (IPS) - Despite being locked up in an Australian detention centre on Papua New Guinea's Manus Island, Kurdish-Iranian journalist Behrouz Boochani has continued reporting - gaining bylines and media attention around the world.

Journalism is the reason Boochani was forced to flee his home country of Iran, and - like the other 900 men detained indefinitely on Manus Island - seek refuge in Australia.

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 29 (IPS) - Until the turn of the century, the United States of America (US) was the country with the highest share of overweight and obese people. Soon after the former president of Coca-Cola Mexico became the new president of his country, Mexico overtook the US.

UNITED NATIONS, Dec 29 (IPS) - While the international community remains intensely pre-occupied with the six-year-old civil war ravaging Syria, the ongoing military conflict in Yemen has triggered a relatively neglected humanitarian crises threatening to explode.

Davao City, PHILIPPINES, Dec 28 (IPS) - With the landslide victory of the tough talking city mayor of Davao City, Roberto Duterte to the Presidency of the Philippines in May 2016, news reports of the South-East Asian country have been dominated by the President's often controversial statements and policies, especially toward those involved in the illegal drug trade. One such notable event, which slipped below the radar was the granting of a second temporary restraining order in 2016 by the country's Supreme Court on the distribution of most contraceptives.

DHAKA, Dec 28 (IPS) - Experts at Bangladesh's National Water Convention 2016 in Dhaka urged the sustainable management and conservation of water as the country braces for a water crisis due to wastage, river pollution, declining groundwater tables and intrusion of salinity.

JOHANNESBURG, Dec 28 (IPS) - In a country with unemployment rising above 25 percent, South Africans are increasingly looking for job creation in small-scale mining, an often-informal industry that provides a living for millions across the continent.