News headlines in 2018, page 40

DHAKA, Aug 27 (IPS) - At 12, Mohammed* is an orphan. He watched his parents being killed by Myanmar government soldiers a year ago. And he is one of an estimated half a million Rohingya children who have survived and been witness to what the United Nations has called genocide.

JOHANNESBURG, Aug 27 (IPS) - Access to safe water for drinking and an adequate supply of water for other purposes is challenging in the rural areas of Vanuatu. A new project, that uses solar water pumping technology, will save time and energy for rural women whose task it is to collect and make water more accessible to their communities.

LONDON, Aug 27 (IPS) - Ruth Romer is Private Sector Advisor, WaterAid UK.

Tea picker Bina, 45 from Sylhet, Bangladesh, used to walk for an hour each day to collect water from a well, also using water from a nearby stream, which was contaminated. Bina and her children were often sick as a result; leading to missed work and a loss of income.

UNITED NATIONS, Aug 27 (IPS) - Ian Williams is a former President of the UN Correspondents' Association (UNCA) and author of UNtold: The Real Story of the United Nations in Peace and War.

Looking at the deserved outpouring of eulogies over Kofi Annan I could not help remembering the advice of the old Latin saying, "Say nothing about the dead unless it's good."  

NAIROBI, Aug 26 (IPS) - Siddharth Chatterjee is the United Nations Resident Coordinator to Kenya and was born in the city that was Mother Teresa's home- Calcutta, India.

"If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other." This profound statement was made by the late Nobel Peace Prize winner Mother Teresa, who was born on this day, August 26, 1910. An icon of love, tolerance, generosity and tremendous integrity and spirituality.

UNITED NATIONS, Aug 24 (IPS) - The United Nation's Department of Public Information (DPI) last week withdrew UN press credentials from Matthew Lee, a longstanding journalist who reported for his blog, Inner City Press (ICP).

DAR ES SALAAM, Aug 24 (IPS) - JamiiForums was Tanzania's largest whistleblowing online platform, with one million visitors each day. But now some 90 percent of staff has been retrenched and the owners are considering shutting down their offices since the June implementation of the country's online content communication law.

BUENOS AIRES, Aug 23 (IPS) - The Argentine Senate's rejection of a bill to legalise abortion did not stop a Latin American movement, which is on the streets and is expanding in an increasingly coordinated manner among women's organisations in the region with the most restrictive laws and policies against pregnant women's right to choose.

BULAWAYO, Zimbabwe, Aug 23 (IPS) - President Azali Assoumani of the Comoros Islands is tightening his grip on power. First, he insisted on holding a referendum allowing him to extend his term of office and abolish the country's constitutional court. Which he won. And now, the lawyer of former President Ahmed Abdallah Sambi has said that his client has been charged Tuesday with corruption and the misappropriation of public funds in a passport fraud.

UNITED NATIONS, Aug 23 (IPS) - Dr Ayodele Odusola is Chief Economist, UNDP Regional Bureau for Africa.

The best time to invest in Africa is now. However, foreign investors have not moved into the continent as quickly as expected because foreign investment decisions are often methodically over-structured. One of the major factors cited is too much risk. But risks and profits are inseparable twins: high-risk ventures are frequently associated with higher profits.