News headlines in April 2016, page 5

SAN JOSE, Apr 21 (IPS) - The countries of Latin America will flock to sign the Paris Agreement, in what will be a simple act of protocol with huge political implications: it is the spark that will ignite actions to curb global warming.

OAKLAND, Apr 20 (IPS) - James Sze Yuan Lau and Ivan Su Chiu Lu must be extremely busy men. Together, they are listed as directors of some 30 companies involved in various activities and services related to logging or agribusiness in Papua New Guinea (PNG). The former is the managing director of Rimbunan Hijau (RH) PNG and son-in-law of RH's founder Tiong Hiew King; the latter is executive director of RH PNG Ltd.. All but two of these 30 companies have the same registered address at 479 Kennedy Road, in the national capital, Port Moresby–the headquarter of the RH group in the country.

UNITED NATIONS, Apr 20 (IPS) - International drug conventions ultimately aim to ensure the health and welfare of humankind, UN Deputy Secretary-General Jan Eliasson said here Tuesday at the opening of a special three-day session on drugs known as UNGASS.

TERI University, New Delhi, India, Apr 20 (IPS) - An Indian Govt. Parliamentary Committee on Estimates on "Occurrence of High Arsenic (As) content in Groundwater" in December, 2014 stated that more than 70 million people in 96 districts in India is under threat due to As occurrence in groundwater.

NAKURU, Kenya, Apr 20 (IPS) - Lydia Abuya, a tenant living in the Kaptembwa informal settlement west of Nakuru town, leaves one of the six on-plot toilets. She returns with a pail of water to splash away the waste.

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, Apr 19 (IPS) - While the main US motivation for the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) has been to counter China's influence in the region, it has also been used to undermine the Doha ‘Development' Round of trade negotiations to better advance politically influential US corporate interests. Hence, it has become all the more necessary to legitimize the TPP in terms of its ostensible benefits. Touted as a ‘gold standard' 21st century trade deal, it is nonetheless necessary to ascertain what gains can really be expected and whether these exceed its costs.

Apr 19 (IPS) - Over one hundred developing countries continue to be left out of global tax cooperation negotiations despite leaks such as the Panama papers showing the high cost of tax avoidance.

ANKARA, Turkey, Apr 19 (IPS) - Speaking to a group of lawyers in Ankara on April 5, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan made the controversial suggestion that Turkey should consider stripping citizenship of what he termed "supporters of terrorism". In his speech, broadcast live on television, the Turkish President stated that: "We need to be decisive to take all the necessary measures including stripping of citizenship for terror organisation supporters."

RIO DE JANEIRO, Apr 19 (IPS) - Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff would appear to be, as she herself recently said, "a card out of the deck" of those in power, after the crushing defeat she suffered Sunday Apr. 17 in the lower house of Congress, which voted to impeach her. But Brazil's political crisis is so complex that the final outcome is not a given.