News headlines in January 2018, page 6

JOHANNESBURG, Jan 09 (IPS) - Conditioned that ploughing is the sure way to produce crops, Zimbabwean farmer Handrixious Zvomarima surprised himself by trying a different method. He planted cowpea seeds directly without tilling the land. It worked.

WASHINGTON DC, Jan 08 (IPS) - Bangladeshis have a long tradition of borrowing from family, neighbors and other informal sources. Microfinance institutions (MFIs) have proliferated over the past three decades and offer a more formal loan service that has been taken up with enthusiasm, and today some 25 million Bangladeshis borrow from MFIs.

UNITED NATIONS, Jan 08 (IPS) - As the 62nd Session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) at the United Nations in New York draws near, women from every corner of the world will convene to focus on the theme of CSW 2018: Challenges and Opportunities in achieving gender equality and the empowerment of rural women and girls. One of the major inquiries in this theme is women's economic empowerment.

ROME, Jan 08 (IPS) - This year, we will have 3 million tourists each day wandering the world. This massive phenomenon is without precedent in human history and is happening (as usual), with only one consideration in mind: money. We should pause and take a look at its social, cultural and environmental impact and take remedial measures, because they are becoming seriously negative if things are left as they are.

WASHINGTON DC, Jan 06 (IPS) - Parts of the United States are experiencing blizzard and record low temperatures, with sharks freezing in the Atlantic and cold-snapped iguanas falling from trees in Florida.

ANÁPOLIS, Brazil, Jan 06 (IPS) - The rails have been laid - thousands of km of rails deteriorating due to lack of use, to the despair of those who believe that a country as vast as Brazil can only be developed by means of trains.

NEW YORK, Jan 05 (IPS) - "Unity is the path. Our future depends on it," said UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, as he issued an unequivocal global ‘Red Alert' in his New Year message on December 31, 2017.

PERIYAKULAM/ADIGAMA, Jan 05 (IPS) - Last year was an annus horribilis for 52-year-old Newton Gunathileka. A paddy smallholder from Sri Lanka's northwestern Puttalam District, 2017 saw Gunathileka abandon his two acres of paddy for the first time in over three and half decades, leaving his family almost destitute.

SEATTLE, Jan 04 (IPS) - A century ago, Italian immigrants told a joke: "Before I came to America, I thought the streets were paved with gold. When I got here, I learned three things: one, the streets were not paved with gold; two, the streets were not paved at all; and three, they expected me to pave them."