News headlines in 2016, page 74

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, Apr 19 (IPS) - While the main US motivation for the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) has been to counter China's influence in the region, it has also been used to undermine the Doha ‘Development' Round of trade negotiations to better advance politically influential US corporate interests. Hence, it has become all the more necessary to legitimize the TPP in terms of its ostensible benefits. Touted as a ‘gold standard' 21st century trade deal, it is nonetheless necessary to ascertain what gains can really be expected and whether these exceed its costs.

Apr 19 (IPS) - Over one hundred developing countries continue to be left out of global tax cooperation negotiations despite leaks such as the Panama papers showing the high cost of tax avoidance.

ANKARA, Turkey, Apr 19 (IPS) - Speaking to a group of lawyers in Ankara on April 5, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan made the controversial suggestion that Turkey should consider stripping citizenship of what he termed "supporters of terrorism". In his speech, broadcast live on television, the Turkish President stated that: "We need to be decisive to take all the necessary measures including stripping of citizenship for terror organisation supporters."

RIO DE JANEIRO, Apr 19 (IPS) - Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff would appear to be, as she herself recently said, "a card out of the deck" of those in power, after the crushing defeat she suffered Sunday Apr. 17 in the lower house of Congress, which voted to impeach her. But Brazil's political crisis is so complex that the final outcome is not a given.

CAIRO, Apr 18 (IPS) - There is an oil producing country situated in the Gulf region, made of a cluster of islands. It is small, surface and population wise. But it holds the dubious privilege of ranking top of the list of 14 out of the 33 countries most likely to be water-stressed in the year 2040.

DOHA, Qatar, Apr 18 (IPS) - Thanks to tensions between Saudi Arabia and Iran, major oil producers couldn't come to an agreement in Doha to freeze their output to January levels to raise oil prices. The current low oil prices have a lot to do with the grim outlook for global economic growth while supply is growing. China, the second largest economy in the world, is slowing down. Not surprisingly, global oil demand is much lower at 94.8 million barrels a day vis-à-vis supply of 96.3 million barrels a day in the first quarter of 2016 according to the International Energy Agency.

CAIRO, Apr 18 (IPS) - This is not about any alarming header—it is the dramatic conclusion of several scientific studies about the on-going climate change impact on the Middle East region, particularly in the Gulf area. The examples are stark.

MALANVILLE, Benin, Apr 18 (IPS) - Salabanya Tabaitou no longer squints from the irritating wood smoke each time she has to parboil her rice paddy.

Now Tabaitou feeds logs into a chute of a specially designed brick stove with a chimney that draws away the smoke. The stove with a stainless steel parboiling vessel cooks her rice in 20 minutes - something she would have spent two hours doing using the traditional method.

ASUNCION, Apr 16 (IPS) - "There were cases of people who stopped coming to work after receiving their first wages and then came back a few days later to ask if there was more work," because they were used to casual work in the informal economy, said Ivonne Ginard.

Apr 15 (IPS) - The plight of 219 Chibok schoolgirls abducted two years ago is all too common in Nigeria's conflict-affected north-eastern communities, and up to 7,000 women and girls might be living in abduction and sex slavery, senior United Nations officials on 14 April 2016 warned.