News headlines in December 2016, page 5

UNITED NATIONS, Dec 14 (IPS) - UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told UN Security Council members of credible reports of civilians in Aleppo being summarily executed during an emergency meeting held on Tuesday.

NEW DELHI, Dec 13 (IPS) - Tasura Begum straightens up from picking a bushel of green chilis and looks at the mighty Padma River flowing by, wondering whose life it ruined today.

UNITED NATIONS, Dec 13 (IPS) - Achieving gender equality in UN staff appointments will be a "clear priority" for incoming UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, when he takes up the UN's top administrative role in January 2017.

NAIROBI, Kenya, Dec 12 (IPS) - Reengineering the framework of support by bringing in women as new actors in effective development cooperation will play a pivotal role in achieving the 2030 Agenda for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

CANCUN, Mexico, Dec 12 (IPS) - "We don't have access to marine areas, because most are protected areas or are in private hands. We indigenous people have been losing access to our territories, as this decision became a privilege of the state," complained Donald Rojas, a member of the Brunka indigenous community in Costa Rica.

KUMASI, Ghana, Dec 11 (IPS) - Ghanaian opposition leader Nana Akufo-Addo has made history as the first son of a former president to lead the West African country, beating incumbent President John Mahama in the 2016 presidential elections held on Wednesday, Dec. 7.

ROME, Dec 11 (IPS) - Up to two billion people live in countries affected by violence, conflict and fragility. Often, such political instability goes hand in hand with food insecurity. "Conflicts have pushed over 56 million people either into crisis or emergency levels of food insecurity", Kimberly Flowers, Director of the Global Food Security Project, said at this years' John McGovern Lecture held at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). The number continues to grow with the escalation of conflicts and violence in countries like Syria, Yemen or South Sudan.

BERLIN, Dec 09 (IPS) - AWID's 5th online tribute to Women Human Rights Defenders (WHRDs) who have died in recent years, commemorates sixty feminists and activists. Thirty eight of these defenders died violently, and were murdered as a result of who they were, their identities, and the rights they defended.

NAIROBI, Kenya, Dec 09 (IPS) - In Kenya the Gini coefficient of inequality is at around 0.45%. Therefore, the economic growth statistics present an unequivocal picture of a highly unequal society, whose development strategy is largely leading to accumulation of wealth by a few and worsening the poverty of the majority.

SANTIAGO, Dec 08 (IPS) - After 26 years of democratic governments, Chile has finally passed a law that defines torture as a criminal act, but which is still not sufficient to guarantee that the abuses will never again happen, according to human rights experts.