News headlines in 2016, page 51

GENEVA, Jun 24 (IPS) - The 12 June 2016 exchange of artillery fire along the heavily militarized frontier between Ethiopia and Eritrea could be just one of the periodic skirmishes between the two States. However, it could be the first signs of a flare up of violence. There have been calls from the United Nations and African Union officials for "restraint" but as yet no steps for real conflict resolution.

Migori County, Kenya, Jun 24 (IPS) - For twenty-six year old Eunice from Migori County,Kenya, celebrating her daughter Sherry's fifth birthday is a milestone that few of her friends have enjoyed. As with many areas of Africa, a child born in Migori is seven times more likely to die before the age of fivecompared to a child in Europe.

UNITED NATIONS, Jun 23 (IPS) - "Wherever war reaches there is rape, and wherever rape is there is trauma, pain and terror" said Zainab Bangura, Special Representative of the Secretary General on Sexual Violence in Conflict said here last week.

MANAGUA, Jun 23 (IPS) - The seventh consecutive nomination of Daniel Ortega as the governing party's candidate to the presidency in Nicaragua, and the withdrawal from the race of a large part of the opposition, alleging lack of guarantees for genuine elections, has brought about the country's worst political crisis since the end of the civil war in 1990.

NEW YORK, Jun 23 (IPS) - The United Nations claims it is doing its best to curb widespread sexual abuses in its peacekeeping operations overseas – from Haiti all the way to the Central African Republic.

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, Jun 23 (IPS) - Global economic recovery is being held hostage by the ideological dogma of the last three and a half decades. After long contributing to neo-liberal conventional wisdom, in its October 2015 World Economic Outlookthe IMF identified the vicious circle undermining global recovery and growth. Low aggregate demand is discouraging investment; slower expected potential growth itself dampens aggregate demand, further limiting investment.

UNITED NATIONS, Jun 23 (IPS) - Displacement has increased to unprecedented levels due to war and persecution, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) has found.

ROME, Jun 23 (IPS) - "Xenophobic and racist rhetoric seems not only to be on the rise, but also to be becoming more socially and politically acceptable."

The warning has been heralded by the authoritative voice of Mogens Lykketoft, current president of the United Nations General Assembly, who on World Refugee Day on June 20, reacted to the just announced new record number of people displaced from their homes due to conflict and persecution.

WASHINGTON, Jun 23 (IPS) - In 2011, Dyhia Belhabib was a volunteer in the Fisheries Centre at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver when she was asked to participate in the Sea Around Us's project to determine how much fish had been taken out of the world's oceans since 1950 in order to better avoid depleting the remaining populations of fish.

UNITED NATIONS, Jun 23 (IPS) - Despite their extreme vulnerability, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) refugees often do not seek the assistance they need, since revealing their sexual or gender identities can put them in grave danger.