News headlines in 2018, page 2

ACCRA, Dec 21 (IPS) - Twelve-year-old Naa Adjeley lives in Glefe, a waterlogged area that is one of the biggest slums along the west coast of Accra, Ghana. The sixth grade student, his parents and three siblings use 30 single-use plastic bags per day for breakfast.

UNITED NATIONS, Dec 21 (IPS) - The dangers of mercury contamination have escalated from the dental chair to the realm of outer space.

First, it was the hazardous use of mercury in dentistry, then in cosmetics, particularly skin-lightening creams, and now it is threatening to make its way into satellite propulsion systems.

ROME, Dec 20 (IPS) - IPS Director General's Year end message

The year now closing, 2018, culminates an extraordinary period in the quest for a world where sexual harassment and assault are, as the words indicate they should be, rare and punished.

JOHANNESBURG, Dec 20 (IPS) - Jenny Ricks is the global convenor of the Fight Inequality Alliance.The world's political and economic elites, that will once again gather at the Swiss mountain resort of Davos for the annual World Economic Forum (WEF) 22-25 January, have become all too predictable. It's not difficult to predict what they will say, because they always say what's in their interests.

NEW DELHI, Dec 20 (IPS) - Most initiatives around Women's Economic Empowerment (WEE) are largely myopic in their approach. Failure to recognise the role of men and masculinities in this context can pose a significant barrier to both women and men's economic well-being.

BENIN CITY, Nigeria, Dec 20 (IPS) - Hundreds of desperate young Nigerians die yearly in the Sahara Desert or at sea while making irregular journeys to Europe. The desperation to reach Europe at all cost, irrespective of the risks, is a major social problem in Africa's most populous country.

ACCRA, Dec 20 (IPS) - It was just three and a half years ago that the Sanwoma fishing village, which sits between the sea and the mouth of the Ankobra River on the west coast of Ghana, experienced perpetual flooding that resulted in a loss of property and life.

SANTI, Dec 20 (IPS) - A landmark global migration pact provides dignity and rights to migrants in every situation and context, stressed representatives of non-governmental organisations in Latin America and the Caribbean, where some 30 million people live outside their countries, forced by economic, social, security, political and now also climatic reasons.

William Mebane, former Director of Energy Efficiency Department, ENEA

An alternative framework of international development and new forms of consumption of good/services are implicit in achieving the goals of UN climate conference recently held in Poland.

BULAWAYO, Zimbabwe, Dec 19 (IPS) - The changing climate and extreme weather events are affecting agricultural productivity in Africa to such an extent that a panel of experts are urging governments to prioritise and invest in irrigation to ensure food security.