News headlines in August 2017, page 2

PHNOM PENH, Aug 29 (IPS) - You have to pay six million dollars in tax! That was the message given to the Cambodian Daily the same week that Prime Minister Hun Sen publicly attacked the newspaper.

NAIROBI, Kenya, Aug 29 (IPS) - Africa's population continues to grow, putting intense pressure on available land for agricultural purposes and life-supporting ecosystem services even as the scenario is compounded by the adverse impacts of climate change.

ABU DHABI, Aug 29 (IPS) - Rising temperatures due to global warming may ground up to a third of airplanes worldwide in the decades to come, according to a recently published analysis by Columbia University.

SANTIAGO, Aug 29 (IPS) - "There are 33 million rural dwellers in Latin America who are still living in extreme poverty and can't afford a good diet, clothes or education, and we are not going to help them move out of poverty if we use the same strategies that worked 20 years ago," , FAO regional representative Julio Berdegué told IPS.

STOCKHOLM, Aug 28 (IPS) - It is a great pleasure to join you today at World Water Week and to be here in Stockholm. This city has been at the forefront of sustainable development since it hosted the first Earth Summit back in 1972, the same year I started my public service as a rural development officer in Fiji!

UNITED NATIONS, Aug 28 (IPS) - The battle to reclaim Raqqa, the de facto capital of the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL/Da'esh), has raised concerns among top UN officials as at least 20,000 civilians remain trapped under heavy fire in the city. Last week Monday, 42 civilians, including 12 women and 19 children, were killed in an air attack, according to the AP.

CASTRIES, St Lucia, Aug 28 (IPS) - Saint Lucia's Prime Minister Allen Chastanet warns that the clock is running out for small states such as those in the Caribbean as they struggle to develop infrastructure capable of withstanding changes in weather conditions - and that wealthier nations need to step up levels of aid.

ROME, Aug 28 (IPS) - While mainstream media have been widely reporting on the dramatic consequences of tropical storm Harvey in the United States, which has been characterised as the fiercest hurricane to hit this country in over a decade, global warming is expected to have a significant impact on "future yields of everything from rice to fish, particularly in countries situated closer to the equator," the United Nations warned.

ROME, Aug 28 (IPS) - Indigenous Maasai people in Loliondo region,Tanzania have been facing new cases of forced evictions and human rights violations, a major international organisation supporting indigenous peoples' struggle for human rights and self-determination warned.

STOCKHOLM, Aug 28 (IPS) - This week people gather from around the globe at the annual Stockholm World Week. If previous years are anything to go by, the "Water is life" cliché will be repeated endlessly. But the phrase is useful shorthand for this simple fact: water is the cornerstone of human health and economic development. If managed poorly, water is an obstacle to development; if managed well, it brings prosperity and peace.