News headlines in March 2013, page 3

DOHA, Mar 28 (IPS) - Thai authorities and Muslim rebels leaders have started peace talks aimed at ending almost a decade of unrest in the country's far south, as fresh violence killed at least five people.

UNITED NATIONS, Mar 28 (IPS) - - The Geneva-based U.N. Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), described as a key forum for developing nations on issues relating to trade, investment and development, will have a new secretary-general come September.

HAVANA, Mar 28 (IPS) - The reform process launched in Cuba by the government of President Raúl Castro has made several changes to the country's rigid social and economic structure, with the ultimate aim of bringing this island nation out of its economic lethargy and making production, which is sinking under the weight of restrictions, controls and contradictions, more efficient.

KARACHI, Mar 28 (IPS) - Mounted on a Harley Davidson, Shehzad Roy, a popular Pakistani singer, is on a mission: to expose the country's 176 million residents to the good, the bad and the ugly side of Pakistan's education system.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, India, Mar 28 (IPS) - Shaken by the brutal gang rape and murder of a young woman in the national capital New Delhi last December, the female workforce in India is calling for more concrete measures for the protection of female employees from both physical and non-physical attacks.

JOHANNESBURG, Mar 28 (IPS) - Although leaders of the Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa group agreed to launch a new development funding institution, giving the club a major infrastructure boost, some here are sceptical about the potential impact of the new bank.

UNITED NATIONS, Mar 28 (IPS) - Viktor Bout earned a few monikers in his heyday: "Merchant of Death", "Sanctions Buster" and "Lord of War". He's the poster boy for illicit arms brokers – a guild of shadowy intermediaries who link arms suppliers to their end users.

WASHINGTON, Mar 27 (IPS) - On the second day of oral arguments in two different cases involving the constitutionality of same-sex marriage, a majority of the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday expressed serious doubts about the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which codifies the non-recognition of same-sex marriage for federal and inter-state purposes.

BUENOS AIRES, Mar 27 (IPS) - The fate of countries with major debt problems is at stake in federal courts in New York, which are to decide in April whether or not they accept Argentina's proposal to the bondholders who rejected two restructurings of sovereign debt.

WASHINGTON, Mar 27 (IPS) - The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is urging national governments around the world to roll back or eliminate subsidies on petroleum-based energy sources, estimating that this alone could result in a 13-percent decline in global carbon dioxide emissions.