News headlines in May 2016, page 3

BULAWAYO, Zimbabwe, May 23 (IPS) - Plugging Africa's funding gaps to accelerate social and economic development requires a fresh approach to using its natural capital, environment experts said on Monday.

CORZUELA, Argentina, May 23 (IPS) - Family farmers in the northern Argentine province of Chaco are gaining a new appreciation of the common prickly pear cactus, which is now driving a new kind of local development.

ROME, May 23 (IPS) - No mention in the media of the dangerous increase in tension between Europe and Russia. But Nato has just made operational in Romania a missile system, the ABM, which the US has declared will protect from "rogue" states, like Iran.

ISTANBUL, Turkey, May 23 (IPS) - With a line up of heads of state or government telling all what they did to alleviate human suffering and promising to do more, along with leaders of civil society and humanitarian organisations denouncing lack of honest political will to act while governments continue spending trillions of dollars in weapons, the two-day World Humanitarian Summit kicked off today May 23 in Istanbul.

DHAKA, May 23 (IPS) - Abdul Aziz, 35, arrived in the capital Dhaka in 2006 after losing all his belongings to the mighty Meghna River. Once, he and his family had lived happily in the village of Dokkhin Rajapur in Bhola, a coastal district of Bangladesh. Aziz had a beautiful house and large amount of arable land.

BONN, May 23 (IPS) - Two months ago, I was in Agadez, a city in the middle of the famous Ténéré Desert of Niger. Agadez has become a major transit point on a hazardous journey for the hundreds and thousands of desperate people from all over West Africa trying to make it to the Mediterranean coast every year.

ISTANBUL, Turkey, May 23 (IPS) - The two-day World Humanitarian Summit (WHS)opening today May 23 in Istanbul, aims at mobilising between 20 and 30 billion dollars to face the on-gowing, worst-ever humanitarian crises, said Stephen O'Brien, UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs andEmergency Relief Coordinator.

LONDON, May 23 (IPS) - The UN World Humanitarian Summit takes place in Istanbul, 23-24 May. So what hopes do the humanitarian organisations, which deliver aid on the ground, have for the outcomes?

ISTANBUL, Turkey, May 22 (IPS) - The African Union (AU) representing 54 countries and home to 1,2 billion inhabitants, will be in Istanbul to participate in the May 23-24, 2016, first-ever World Humanitarian Summit (WHS) with two key demands—that the international humanitarian system be redefined, and a strong, firm own commitment to itself, to the continent and its people, anchoring on the primacy of the states.

UNITED NATIONS, May 22 (IPS) - Boats carrying refugees and boats carrying aid supplies will be on the agenda at the World Humanitarian Summit this week, but advocates say discussing the free flow of shipments carrying bombs and guns might be even more critical.