News headlines in February 2018, page 5

KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 13 (IPS) - Over the last few decades, people in the developing world have been rejecting the intellectual property (IP) regime as it has been increasingly imposed on them following the establishment of the World Trade Organization (WTO) including its trade-related intellectual property rights (TRIPs) regime. IP rights (IPRs) have been further enforced through ostensible free trade agreements (FTAs) and investment treaties among two (bilateral) or more (plurilateral) partners.

MEXICO CITY, Feb 13 (IPS) - The use of technological tools in political campaigns has become widespread in Latin America, accompanied by practices that raise concern among academics and social organisations, especially in a year with multiple elections throughout the region.

UNITED NATIONS, Feb 12 (IPS) - Nelson Mandela, shortly after becoming the first democratically elected president of South Africa, spoke to both his countrymen and women—indeed, for Africans everywhere—when he declared, "We must work together to ensure the equitable distribution of wealth, opportunity and power in our society."

PENANG, Malaysia, Feb 12 (IPS) - Was last week's global stock market sell-off only a "correction" or does it signify a new period of financial instability, caused by major flaws in the world financial system?

UNITED NATIONS, Feb 12 (IPS) - When Norwegian parliamentarian Bjørnar Moxnes recently nominated the BDS movement for the 2018 Nobel Peace Prize, the leader of Norway's Red Party faced the inevitable: a furious backlash from pro-Israeli and anti-Palestinian groups.

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia, Feb 11 (IPS) - In Ethiopia social media is a double-edged sword: capable of filling a sore need for more information but also of pushing the country toward even greater calamity.

LONDON, Feb 09 (IPS) - Abdu Salam stayed in his village as Myanmar soldiers and local vigilantes burned down dozens of homes there last August. He stayed as news spread of atrocities that soldiers had committed in other Rohingya villages across northern Rakhine State. He stayed because Hpon Nyo Leik village was his home, the only home he'd known, and he wanted to protect his family's property and right to live there.

BANGKOK, Thailand, Feb 09 (IPS) - All eyes are on the 23rd Olympic Winter Games and 12th Paralympic Winter Games in PyeongChang this February. Top athletes will carry their national flags in an opening ceremony which has come to epitomize the international community. Sports fans worldwide eagerly await the Olympics, and this time there is cause for cautious optimism that sport diplomacy may lower tensions on the Korean Peninsula itself. Leaders, diplomats and citizens from the world over will witness North and South Korean athletes walking side by side. For this, there could be few better places than PyeongChang, which means peace (Pyeong) and prosperity (Chang): goals integral to the mission of the United Nations and the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda.

DHAKA, Feb 09 (IPS) - Although Bangladesh has made remarkable recent strides like building green factories and meeting stringent safety standards, garment workers here are still paid one of the lowest minimum wages in the world.

DUSHANBE, Tajikistan, Feb 09 (IPS) - In Tajikistan and other countries of Central Asia, local water user associations have proved vital for efficient irrigation management, and reasonably prolonged training is the key for enabling the associations to perform well.