News headlines in April 2017, page 4

BLUEFIELDS, Nicaragua, Apr 22 (IPS) - The effects of climate change have hit Nicaragua's Caribbean coastal regions hard in the last decade and have forced the authorities and local residents to take protection and adaptation measures to address the phenomenon that has gradually undermined their safety and changed their way of life.

ROME, Apr 21 (IPS) - A perfect storm has engulfed the Middle East, and continues to threaten international peace and security.

Hardly anyone could sum up the Middle East explosive situation in so few, blunt words as just did Nickolay Mladenov, the UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process.

PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, Apr 21 (IPS) - Caribbean Community (Caricom) states are in the process of formulating an energy efficiency building code for the region that would help reduce CO2 emissions, but implementation of the code may depend heavily on moral suasion for its success.

UNITED NATIONS, Apr 20 (IPS) - Persistent attacks on health care in Yemen is severely impacting children's well-being, civil society detailed at the launch of a report.

WASHINGTON, Apr 20 (IPS) - The apparent and surprisingly abrupt demise in Steve Bannon's influence offers a major potential opening for neoconservatives, many of whom opposed Trump's election precisely because of his association with Bannon and the "America Firsters," to return to power after so many years of being relegated to the sidelines. Bannon's decline suggest that he no longer wields the kind of veto power that prevented the nomination of Elliott Abrams as deputy secretary of state. Moreover, the administration's ongoing failure to fill key posts at the undersecretary, assistant secretary, and deputy assistant secretary levels across the government's foreign-policy apparatus provides a veritable cornucopia of opportunities for aspiring neocons who didn't express their opposition to the Trump campaign too loudly.

UNITED NATIONS, Apr 20 (IPS) - UN's education envoy has unveiled a new model that could provide every child with access to education by 2030.

Citing concerns about the neglect of children's rights, the Special Envoy for Global Education Gordon Brown urged for more and better finance to ensure every child is in school and learning.

ST. JOHN’S, Antigua, Apr 20 (IPS) - The tiny island-nation of Antigua and Barbuda has made an impassioned plea for support from the international community to deal with the devastating impacts of climate change.

UNITED NATIONS, Apr 19 (IPS) - Nikki Haley, the United States ambassador to the United Nations, presided over what she was determined to sell as "an historic meeting exclusively on human rights" in the UN Security Council. But her brief speech in the April 18 meeting fell far short of introducing innovations to confront violations of human rights or prevent them in such places as Syria, Burundi and Myanmar.

KUALA LAMPUR, Apr 19 (IPS) - Investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) provisions in bilateral investment treaties (BITs) and free trade agreements (FTAs) have effectively created a powerful and privileged system of protections for foreign investors that undermines national law and institutions.

UNITED NATIONS, Apr 19 (IPS) - "I don't have enough money to buy clean water, so I have to come and collect it from the river. I have young twins – a boy and a girl. I know the water is dirty – it often makes them sick but I have no other option." Those are the words of a South Sudanese mother, Latif, who lives by the river Nile in Juba.