News headlines in 2016, page 38

NEW DELHI, Aug 10 (IPS) - Norman Borlaug, father of the Green Revolution, died on September 9, 2009. Alfred G. Gilman died on December 23, 2015.

Both were Nobel laureates and now both dead. Gilman was a signatory to a recent letter condemning Greenpeace and its opposition to genetic engineering.

NEW YORK, Aug 10 (IPS) - Barely 17 years old and from the Gajapati district in Odisha, India, Susmita has never gone to school. She rears the few animals her family owns, and this is her primary duty besides attending to household chores.

Mandera County, Kenya, Aug 10 (IPS) - The increased budgetary allocations to the health sector by county governments point to an acknowledgement not only of the enormous challenges facing the sector, but also of good health as a prerequisite to overall development.

SAN ISIDRO, El Salvador, Aug 09 (IPS) - Juana Morales is cooking one of the most popular dishes in El Salvador: pupusas, corn tortillas with different fillings. But hers are unique: they are not made with the traditional corn tortillas, but use Maya nuts, a highly nutritional seed that has fallen out of use but whose consumption is being encouraged in rural communities.

ROME, Aug 09 (IPS) - Two-thirds of the African continent is already desert or dry-lands. But while this vast extension of the second largest continent on Earth after Asia is "vital" for agriculture and food production, nearly three-fourths of it is estimated to be degraded to varying degrees.

YAOUNDÉ, Cameroon, Aug 09 (IPS) - It is a sunny afternoon in Boui, a small village in the Boumba and Ngoko Division of Cameroon's South East Region. A primary school teacher is drawing some wild animals on the blackboard. Then she turns to the class of fifteen pupils.

NEW DELHI, Aug 09 (IPS) - A media frenzy ensued in New Delhi last month when a popular television channel highlighted the horrific living conditions of women inmates in ward number six of Tihar Jail, South Asia's largest prison.

ROME, Aug 08 (IPS) - For the first time ever, a team of displaced athletes will have their chance to demonstrate their relentless determination and integrity in a bid to leave their own distinct mark on Olympic history.

ROME, Aug 08 (IPS) - Can African farmers feed the world?. Apparently the answer is "yes." Bold as it may sound, this statement is based on specific facts: Africa is home to 60-65 per cent of the world's uncultivated arable land and 10 per cent of renewable freshwater resources, and it has registered a 160 per cent increase in agricultural output over the past 30 years.

NEW YORK, Aug 08 (IPS) - It first happened in Italy in 1995. Five years later it happened in six additional countries, Bulgaria, Germany, Greece, Japan, Portugal and Spain. Today the total number of countries where it has occurred stands at 30, including most members of the European Union. In fifteen years that number is expected to nearly double and include Australia, Canada, China, Russia, South Korea and the United States (Table 1).