News headlines in August 2013, page 5

CAIRO, Aug 26 (IPS) - With the sun inching closer to the horizon on Friday afternoon in the Mohandiseen neighbourhood of Cairo, the call to prayer from Mostafa Mahmood mosque goes out over a street empty of all but a few soldiers lingering beside their tanks.

BERKELEY, California, Aug 25 (IPS) - James Bimen Associates of Virginia and Harris Corporation of Florida have contracts with the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to hack into computers and phones of surveillance targets, according to Chris Soghoian, principal technologist at the American Civil Liberties Union's Speech, Privacy and Technology Project.

RIO DE JANEIRO, Aug 25 (IPS) - It took Brazil four decades to overcome food insecurity and earn a place as a major global food supplier. Now its experiences will contribute to the evidence base for a new initiative that seeks to reconcile agriculture and the conservation of biological diversity.

DAMASCUS, Aug 25 (IPS) - The school system in Syria's largest Palestinian refugee camp Yarmouk, located in capital Damascus, has been shattered by the fighting that now bedevils the community and the siege that strangles the district. Some tenacious teachers are, however, refusing to leave the camp and are battling against odds to provide education to an ever-growing number of youngsters.

QUITO, Aug 24 (IPS) - The Ecuadorean government's decision to allow oil drilling in the Yasuní National Park, one of the most biodiverse areas of the planet, has caused alarm among environmentalists and indigenous people, who are calling for a referendum on the issue.

BERKELEY, California, Aug 24 (IPS) - How do U.S. intelligence agencies eavesdrop on the whole world? The ideal place to tap trans-border telecommunications is undersea cables that carry an estimated 90 percent of international voice traffic.

KOSICE, Slovakia, Aug 24 (IPS) - The European Commission (EC) has demanded that Slovakia's second city, Kosice, tear down a wall put up to segregate Roma – the 14^th such wall in the country and the eighth built in the last four years.

BOGOTA, Aug 23 (IPS) - Colombia's FARC guerrillas announced Friday a "pause" in the peace talks in Havana, which formally opened a year ago. But analysts say it is only a temporary glitch.

WASHINGTON, Aug 23 (IPS) - Arms control advocates are decrying a new U.S. Department of Defence announcement that it will be building and selling 1,300 cluster bombs to Saudi Arabia, worth some 641 million dollars.

BELMOPAN, Belize, Aug 23 (IPS) - Every year, the Caribbean's electric sector burns through approximately 30 million barrels of fuel. Overall, the region imports in excess of 170 million barrels of petroleum products annually.