News headlines in March 2019

MAPUTO, Mar 29 (IPS) - The city of Dondo, about 30 kilometres from Beira, central Mozambique, didn't escape the strong winds of Cyclone Idai. It is estimated that more than 17,000 families were displaced and more than a dozen schools were destroyed in the city.

LONDON, Mar 29 (IPS) - The UK Government has announced an aid package to support hospitals in Gaza that are "near breaking point".

The £2 million package will go to the International Committee of the Red Cross's 2019 Israel and Occupied Territories (ILOT) Appeal. The aid will contribute to surgical equipment, drugs, wound dressing kits, prosthetics, and post-surgery physiotherapy for up to 3,000 disabled people.

NEW DELHI, Mar 29 (IPS) - Ashlin Mathew is a news editor for the National Herald newspaper in New Delhi.

Radhika Baburao Shinde was all of 12 years old when she was married off to a man who was 10 years older. She was sent away to live with her new husband, a truck driver, and his family in remote, drought-prone Satara district, 330 kilometers southwest of Mumbai. She left school and went to work as a laborer on her husband's family farm.

UNITED NATIONS, Mar 29 (IPS) - People with disabilities are being left behind, and steps must be taken to ensure their inclusion in the world of education and work.

RIO DE JANEIRO, Mar 29 (IPS) - Two military-inspired initiatives are leading Brazil's new government, which includes a number of generals, down the path of mega-projects, which have had disastrous results in the last four decades.

DHAKA, Mar 28 (IPS) - Saima W. Hossain, a licensed school psychologist, is the WHO Goodwill Ambassador for Autism in the South East Asia Region, Chair of the National Advisory Committee on Autism and NDDs in Bangladesh, and Chairperson of Shuchona Foundation.

The Kingdom of Bhutan is a landlocked country surrounded by Bangladesh, India and the Tibetan region of China. It is a country that brought the term Gross National Happiness as a concept by which to measure a country's progress. In April 2017 it celebrated WAAD by hosting the International Conference on Autism & Neurodevelopmental Disorders (ANDD2017) in Thimphu.

BANGKOK, Thailand, Mar 28 (IPS) - Amina J. Mohammed, the Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations, in a keynote address to the opening session of the Asia-Pacific Forum on Sustainable Development.

2019 will be a defining year for the 2030 Agenda; and the regional forums will pave the way for our first stocktaking on the SDGs in the General Assembly in September.

UNITED NATIONS, Mar 28 (IPS) - This article is part of a series on the current state of civil society organisations (CSOs), which will be the focus of International Civil Society Week (ICSW), sponsored by CIVICUS, and scheduled to take place in Belgrade, April 8-12.

The widespread political repression in countries such as the Philippines, Egypt and Saudi Arabia-- and rising right-wing nationalism in the US, Brazil, Italy, India, Poland and Hungary-- have increasingly triggered attacks on human rights and civil society organisations (CSOs).

UNITED NATIONS, Mar 28 (IPS) - As menstruation continues to be shamed in many communities, one organisation is rising up to the challenge to ensure "safe menstruation for all women of Bangladesh."

ROME, Mar 28 (IPS) - Since the powerful march of hundreds of thousands of students in 1,000 towns against climate change, an unexpected campaign of delegitimation, "demystification" and demonisation has started against Greta Thunberg, the Swedish teenager who started the movement. After searching the media, social media and websites, this campaign can be divided into four different groups.