News headlines in October 2017, page 5

MEXICO CITY, Oct 20 (IPS) - They work for years to bolster the economies of two countries. For one, the United States, they provide labour and taxes; for the other, Mexico, they send remittances that support tens of thousands of families and communities. Then they are deported, and neither government takes into account their special needs.

UNITED NATIONS, Oct 19 (IPS) - The world's tobacco companies – which have been widely ostracized in the UN system – may be ousted from one of their last fortified strongholds in the United Nations: the International Labour Organization (ILO).

ADDIS ABABA, Oct 19 (IPS) - Lack of energy access presents a formidable challenge to Africa and lack of access to financing has been singled out as the biggest reason why over 620 million people living on the continent are stuck in energy poverty.

HARARE, Oct 19 (IPS) - At the dawn of the millennium, Sheila Mponda, 60, waved goodbye to her four children, who were leaving Zimbabwe for the United Kingdom in search of greener pastures. Mponda had just lost her husband and had been a housewife all her life.

UNITED NATIONS, Oct 19 (IPS) - I will travel to the Central African Republic early next week to spend United Nations Day with a peacekeeping operation in order to pay tribute to peacekeepers across the world.

UNITED NATIONS, Oct 18 (IPS) - While many often focus on wealth disparities, economic inequality is often a symptom and cause of other inequalities including women's access to sexual and reproductive health.

OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA, Oct 18 (IPS) - A woman shopkeeper is standing on a plastic chair to avoid knee high swirling rainwater mixed with sewage. "I work with a women's cooperative selling products made by Palestinian women in my shop. The sewage water has gone into the electric wires, so I have no electricity. Everything in the shop is destroyed. The metal door installed to protect the settlers prevents the water from flowing out into the main drain. . . . This means we suffer every time it rains. They want us to move from here. This is why they make our life hard," she cries.

SYDNEY and KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 18 (IPS) - As the United Nations' Second Decade for the Eradication of Poverty (2008-2017) comes to an end, more self-congratulation is likely. Claims of victory in the war against poverty will be backed by recently released poverty estimates from the World Bank, entrusted by the UN system to monitor poverty.

ROME, Oct 18 (IPS) - The world is running out of antibiotics to combat the growing threat of antimicrobial resistance, the UN World Health Organization (WHO) warned while announcing the World Antibiotic Awareness Week on 13-19 November.

BUENOS AIRES, Oct 18 (IPS) - The Argentine biodiesel industry, which in the last 10 years has become one of the most powerful in the world, has an uncertain future, faced with protectionist measures in the United States and Europe and doubts in the international scenario about the environmental impact of these fuels based on agricultural products.