News headlines in 2018, page 17

NAIROBI, Kenya, Nov 19 (IPS) - Siddharth Chatterjee is the United Nations Resident Coordinator to Kenya.That almost one in five Kenyan teenage girls is a mother represents not only a huge cost to the health sector, but also a betrayal of potential on a shocking scale.

SAN ANTONIO DEL SUR, Cuba, Nov 19 (IPS) - At a brisk pace, Marciano Calamato and Mireya Noa walk along the dry, yellow soil of their farm, where they even manage to grow onions in Cuba's unique semi-arid eastern region.

NEW YORK, Nov 16 (IPS) - A coalition of over 50 civil society organizations (CSOs), from more than 20 countries, have urged two of the world's largest multi-billion dollar E-commerce retailers – Amazon and eBay – to stop marketing "dangerous and illegal mercury-based skin lightening creams."

COX'S BAZAR/DHAKA, Nov 16 (IPS) - Thousands of Rohingya refugees in camps in Cox's Bazar, the southern-most coastal district in Bangladesh, protested on Thursday, Nov. 15, against an attempt to send them back to Myanmar.

UNITED NATIONS, Nov 15 (IPS) - Kingsley Ighobor, Africa Renewal* Following the unveiling of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement in Kigali, Rwanda, in March 2018, Africa is about to become the world's largest free trade area: 55 countries merging into a single market of 1.2 billion people with a combined GDP of $2.5 trillion.

NAIROBI, Nov 15 (IPS) - Ambassador Macharia Kamau is Principal Secretary, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Government of Kenya, also the coordinating Ministry of the Sustainable Blue Economy Conference, 2018.For many years now, the economic potential of the African continent has been discussed, promoted and hailed by everyone from economists to policymakers to world leaders – and with very good reason. After all, Africa is a vast, populous, developing continent with enormous natural and human resource riches and a raft of rapidly developing economies which are helping create prosperity and raise living standards and social opportunities through economic growth.

SHARM EL SHEIKH, Egypt, Nov 15 (IPS) - Cristiana Pașca Palmer is the Executive Secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), Montreal, & Anne Larigauderie is the Executive Secretary of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), Bonn.

The quality of the air we breathe, the food we eat and the water we drink depend directly on the state of our biodiversity, which is now in severe jeopardy. We need a transformational change in our relationship with nature to ensure the sustainable future we want for ourselves and our children.

TARTAGAL, Argentina, Nov 14 (IPS) - The seed was planted more than 20 years ago by a group of indigenous women who began to gather to try to recover memories from their people. Today, women are also the main protagonists of La Voz Indígena (The Indigenous Voice), a unique radio station in northern Argentina that broadcasts every day in seven languages.

UNITED NATIONS, Nov 14 (IPS) - IPS correspondent Carmen Arroyo interviews PETER THOMSON, United Nation's Special Envoy for the Ocean.

When Peter Thomson, the United Nation's Secretary General's Special Envoy for the Ocean, heard in 2010 there was going to be a 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda, he knew he had to include the ocean question.

UNITED NATIONS, Nov 14 (IPS) - A former French president once remarked: Never pick a fight with a little kid or the press. The kid will throw the last stone at you and the press will have the last word.

But that obviously does not apply to a teflon-coated Donald Trump because nothing apparently sticks on him – even as he survives a barrage of criticisms from the mainstream media while he continues to utter falsehoods and mouth blatant lies.