News headlines in January 2017, page 6

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 12 (IPS) - So-called free-trade agreements (FTAs) are generally presumed to promote trade liberalization, but in fact, they do much more to strengthen the power of the most influential transnational corporations of the dominant partner involved. While FTAs typically reduce some barriers to the international trade in goods and services, some provisions strengthen private monopolies and corporate power.

Mexico City, Jan 12 (IPS) - "We are absolutely fed up with the government's plundering and arbitrary decisions. We don´t deserve what they're doing to us," said Marisela Campos during one of the many demonstrations against the government´s decision to raise fuel prices.

ROME, Jan 11 (IPS) - There is a major though silent global threat to human and animal health, with implications for both food safety and food security and the economic well-being of millions of farming households. It is so-called anti-microbial resistance.

DHAKA, Jan 11 (IPS) - Journalism is a profession that attracts both sexes, but social taboos and hostile office climates have kept the numbers of women working in Bangladesh's media sector dismally low. Still, a new generation of women is stepping up, with the support of their path-breaking colleagues.

LISBON, Jan 10 (IPS) - The death of Mario Soares, former Portuguese prime-minister, president, and historic leader of Lusitanian socialism, demonstrated just how united the Portuguese are with regards to his past and his historical projection.

LISBON, Jan 10 (IPS) - Hardly a leader could reap so much respect, even from most relentless political rivals, both throughout his life and after his death on Jan 7 at the age of 92, like Portuguese Mário Soares.

UNITED NATIONS, Jan 10 (IPS) - UN member states hope to reach agreement on a diverse range of global issues in 2017, from managing the world's oceans to banning killer robots to stopping tuberculosis, one of the world's deadliest diseases.

BERAGAMA, Jan 09 (IPS) - Beragama is a typical Sri Lankan rural village, with lush green paddy fields interspersed by small houses and the village temple standing at the highest location. Despite being close to the island's second international harbour and its second international airport, Beragama appears untouched by modernity.

ROME, Jan 07 (IPS) - When pro-nuclear disarmament organisations last October cheered the United Nations decision to start in 2017 negotiations on a global treaty banning these weapons, they probably did not expect that shortly after the US would elect Republican businessman Donald Trump as their 45th president. Much less that he would rush to advocate for increasing the US nuclear power.

APODI, Brazil, Jan 06 (IPS) - In his 76 years of life, Raimundo Pinheiro de Melo has endured a number of droughts in Brazil's semi-arid Northeast region. And he remembers every one of them since 1958.