News headlines in March 2017, page 9

ACCRA, Mar 09 (IPS) - Ghana turned 60 years old this week. The West African country gained independence from Britain on Mar. 6, 1957, and remains a study in contradictions.

LA PAZ, Mar 09 (IPS) - A new bill in Bolivia, which will allow the amount of land allocated to producing coca to be increased from 12,000 to 22,000 hectares, modifying a nearly three-decade coca production policy, has led to warnings from independent voices and the opposition that the measure could fuel drug trafficking.

ROME/GENEVA, Mar 08 (IPS) - "The women's movement has brought about tremendous change but we must also recognise that progress has been slow and extremely uneven and that it also brought its own challenges," warned the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein.

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, Mar 08 (IPS) - Last month, the United Nations declared another famine threat in Somalia due to yet another drought in the Horn of Africa. Important lessons must be drawn from the Somalia famine of 2010-2012, which probably killed about 258,000 peoplehalf of whom were under-five. This was the greatest tragedy in terms of famine deaths in the 21st century, and in recent decades since the Ethiopian famine of the late 1980s.

UNITED NATIONS, Mar 08 (IPS) - The United Nations has frequently been accused of vociferously preaching gender empowerment and women's rights to the outside world -- but failing miserably to practice what it preaches in its own political backyard.

NAIROBI, Mar 07 (IPS) - This year as the world commemorates International Women's Day it is a time for all of us to celebrate and reflect on the progress made on Women's rights globally. But more importantly, a day to call for an end to gender inequality in all its forms especially in the work spaces. Appropriately themed "Women in the Changing World of Work: Planet 50-50 by 2030" the commemoration comes against a backdrop of a world that is undergoing major changes with significant implications for women.

ROME/VIENNA, Mar 07 (IPS) - Women and girls comprise one-third of global drug users yet are only one-fifth of those receiving treatment, a UN-Backed independent expert body warned.

ROME/BERLIN, Mar 07 (IPS) - Around 900 million – or just over one in four – people living in 16 countries in Asia Pacific, including some of its biggest economies, are estimated to have paid a bribe to access public services, with governments failing to stop corruption, according to a new public opinion poll from a major anti-corruption watchdog.

ROME, Mar 07 (IPS) - Global food supply conditions are robust, but access to food has been dramatically reduced in areas suffering from civil conflicts, while drought conditions are worsening food security across swathes of East Africa, according to the United Nations.

ROME, Mar 07 (IPS) - Basic rights always need champions, and that's truer today than it ought to be as around the world we see an unwelcome pattern of reaction to modern complexities ranging from globalization and automation to austerity and dwindling wages. One alarming example is how the agenda of promoting women's rights, so far from completion, is being pushed back rather than forward.