News headlines in May 2013, page 6

UNITED NATIONS, May 26 (IPS) - Slavery. Colonialism. Apartheid. Gender discrimination in voting. All were abolished in most places after longstanding battles - largely in bygone eras.

OCCUPIED EAST JERUSALEM, May 26 (IPS) - Thick locks hug the front gates of shuttered shops, now covered in graffiti and dust from lack of use.Only a handful of customers pass along the dimly lit road, sometimes stopping to check the ripeness of fruits and vegetables, or ordering meat in near-empty butcher shops.

WASHINGTON, May 26 (IPS) - After coming under fire from environmental and social justice organisations for violations of land protection laws, Herakles Farms, a New York-based agricultural company, has suspended a large, controversial palm oil project in Cameroon.

SYDNEY, May 25 (IPS) - Australia's largest textile workers' union and activist groups are up in arms that the country's leading retail chains, who source most of their fashion labels from Bangladesh, are refusing to sign a legally binding accord that will help to improve labour and safety standards in Bangladeshi garment factories.

MEXICO CITY, May 25 (IPS) - Issues related to the ownership of forest carbon and to prior consultation mechanisms threaten to derail plans for the Reduction of Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation of Forests (REDD+) in some countries of Latin America, according to experts.

NAIROBI, May 25 (IPS) - "My husband and older son, unable to cope with the war, became mentally ill. Two of my sons became child soldiers and an eight-year-old daughter was abducted – they were never to be seen again," Mariamu Dong says, referring to the 21-year civil war between north and south Sudan, which are now separate countries.

WASHINGTON, May 25 (IPS) - Following the release of a major draft report on drug policy in the Americas, the secretary-general of the Organisation of American States (OAS), Jose Miguel Insulza, called for the beginning of debate aimed at reforming those policies throughout the region.

ADDIS ABABA, May 24 (IPS) - There is much to celebrate this week as the African Union marks 50 years as an independent pan-African entity. 

NEW YORK, May 24 (IPS) - Say "Africa" and myriad images flood our minds. Like its landscape and peoples, the continent's history is rich and diverse. While numerous books have been written and films made on the African slave trade in the West, a lesser-known aspect of the continent's history lies in India.

UNITED NATIONS, May 24 (IPS) - Aboriginal youth are making their mark at the two-week United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. And this year, the gathering's twelfth, 24-year-old Angela Landry, whose Anishinaabe name is Eagle Heart Woman, is representing them.