News headlines in August 2018

DHAKA, Aug 31 (IPS) - After the recent student uprising in Bangladesh, and despite increased policing on the streets and amendments to the traffic laws, there has been criticism that things have not changed significantly enough to make the country's roads safer.

DHAKA, Aug 31 (IPS) - Asa Torkelsson is the representative of the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) in BangladeshAugust 25, 2018 marked one year since violence erupted in Myanmar's Rakhine State, triggering the massive Rohingya exodus to neighbouring Bangladesh. As the crisis continues with no immediate end in sight, it is crucial to expand and sustain health and life skills services for Rohingya women, girls and youth to locate opportunities amid challenges.

LA PINTANA, Chile, Aug 30 (IPS) - The right to land and water, as well as to multicultural education, are the top priority demands of Mapuche leaders working with their communities in the Araucanía region and in Santiago, Chile's capital.

OSLO, Aug 30 (IPS) - Enayatullah Azad is Media, Information & Advocacy Coordinator, Norwegian Refugee CouncilAmid a precarious security situation in Afghanistan, the worst drought in recent history, that hit two out of three provinces in Afghanistan in July, has destabilized the lives of tens of thousands of civilians, some of whom have already been displaced.

PEMBA, Zambia, Aug 30 (IPS) - Just having better information about when and for how long it will rain is proving the difference between success and failure among smallholder farmers in southern Zambia. Empowered with timely information about the weather ahead of the 2017/18 farming season, 56-year-old Fainess Muzyamba of Pemba district, ending up ditching her traditional maize crop for sweet potatoes.

UNITED NATIONS, Aug 29 (IPS) - Saudi Arabia, which has been accused of relentlessly bombing civilian targets in strife-torn Yemen and threatening executions of human rights activists, is fast gaining notoriety as a political outcast at the United Nations.

KIGALI, Aug 29 (IPS) - When Telesphore Ruzigamanzi, a smallholder banana farmer from a remote village in Eastern Rwanda, discovered a peculiar yellowish hue on his crop before it started to dry up, he did not give it the due consideration it deserved.

WASHINGTON DC, Aug 29 (IPS) - TADEUSZ GALEZA is a research officer in the IMF's Monetary and Capital Markets Department. JAMES CHAN is a senior information management assistant in the IMF's Statistics Department.From strings of shells in the Solomon Islands to large stone disks on the Micronesian isle of Yap or wheels of Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese in Italy, money has taken many forms throughout history.

GENEVA, Aug 28 (IPS) - Yilmaz Akyüz is former Director, UNCTAD, and former Chief Economist, South Centre, GenevaThe meltdown of the Turkish currency over a matter of a few days in August 2018 has elicited various reactions and interpretations both at home and abroad, and created widespread concern that it could mark the beginning of a series of crisis in emerging economies exposed to a reassessment of risks by international investors and lenders as well as a rapid normalization of monetary policy in the United States.

BRIGHTON, UK, Aug 28 (IPS) - Sir Arthur Richard Jolly, an eminent development economist, is Honorary Professor and former Director of the Institute of Development Studies at the University of Sussex, UK.Kul Gautam's memoir is everything which one hopes for from a good biography. There are difficulties all along the way, obstacles and challenges overcome and a vision pursued with extraordinary persistence in spite of everything.