News headlines in August 2015, page 7

UNITED NATIONS, Aug 14 (IPS) - As Iranian-American journalist Jason Rezaian awaits his verdict, human rights advocates and press freedom groups continue to condemn the trial and call for his immediate release.

Aug 14 (IPS) - The charred foundations are all that is left of the homes that made up Kenemote village in the mountainous Eastern Highlands Province of Papua New Guinea in the southwest Pacific Islands.

UNITED NATIONS, Aug 14 (IPS) - If there is any idea and cause for which the United Nations has been an indispensable engine of progress globally it is the cause of ending all forms of "discrimination and violence against women and girls, ensuring the realization of their equal rights and advancing their political, economic and social empowerment.

BULAWAYO, Zimbabwe, Aug 14 (IPS) - The efficacy of attempts to sustainably manage forests and conserve and enhance forest carbon stocks in Zimbabwe is increasingly coming under scrutiny as new research warns that the politics of access and control over forests and their carbon is challenging conventional understanding.

BUENOS AIRES, Aug 13 (IPS) - It's pouring rain in the capital of Argentina, but customers haven't stayed away from the Bonpland Solidarity Economy Market, where family farmers sell their produce. The government has now decided to give them a label to identify and strengthen this important segment of the economy: small farmers.

UNITED NATIONS, Aug 13 (IPS) - It was two a.m. on Aug. 2 as peacekeeping forces from the U.N. Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA) searched for a criminal suspect in the PK5 Muslim enclave of the capital city of Bangui.

BARCELONA, Aug 13 (IPS) - Recovering from a broken femur following a bicycle accident suffered in Switzerland, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry – former senator and former presidential candidate – is anxious to accelerate his convalescence and will visit Cuba on Friday Aug. 14, where he will hoist the Stars and Stripes flag over the emblematic U.S. embassy building in Havana.

BERLIN, Aug 13 (IPS) - Governments around the world are obliged to promote and protect all human rights and fundamental freedoms, regardless of their political, economic and cultural systems, according to the Vienna World Conference on Human Rights.  But reality is far removed from international covenants.