News headlines in July 2017, page 6

BRUSSELS, Belgium, Jul 14 (IPS) - With Antigua and Barbuda joining St. Kitts and Nevis as the two eastern Caribbean nations to attain middle-income country status, a senior diplomat has identified climate change as a major factor preventing other nations in the grouping from attaining a similar status.

ROME/AMMAN, Jul 13 (IPS) - More than ever before, the Arab region now registers an unprecedented youth population growth while facing huge challenges such as extremely high unemployment rates --more than half of all regional jobless population--, and inadequate education and health provision, in particular among young women.

KUALA LUMPUR, Jul 13 (IPS) - When we fail to act on lessons from a crisis, we risk exposing ourselves to another one. The 1997-¬1998 East Asian crises provided major lessons for international financial reform. Two decades later, we appear not to have done much about them. The way the West first responded to the 2008 global financial crisis should have reminded us to do more. But besides accumulating more reserves, Southeast Asia has not done much else.

UNITED NATIONS, Jul 13 (IPS) - More than two billion people lack access to clean and safe drinking water, according to a new report released by the World Health Organisation (WHO).

BONN, Jul 13 (IPS) - At the High-Level Political Forum which currently takes place at the United Nations in New York several events, for instance a SDG Business Forum, are devoted to the critical role of business and public-private partnerships (PPPs) in implementing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

KINGSTON, Jamaica, Jul 12 (IPS) - According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), 31.1 percent or about 337,000 hectares of Jamaica is forested. Of this, 26.1 percent or 88,000 is classified as primary forest, the most biodiverse and carbon-dense form of forest.

UNITED NATIONS, Jul 12 (IPS) - More than seven decades after the deployment of deadly atomic bombs in Japan, the UN has passed a historic treaty banning nuclear weapons around the world. Though it has sparked hope for a future without nuclear weapons, uncertainty in the success of the treaty still lingers.

BUENOS AIRES, Jul 12 (IPS) - Development in Argentina in the second half of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century was closely tied to that of the railway. The eighth largest country in the world, Argentina's economy grew through exporting agricultural and livestock products, and the railways were key to founding centres of population and transporting goods to the ports.

GENEVA, Switzerland, Jul 11 (IPS) - The world population has witnessed a remarkable growth during the recent decades. In 1965, it stood at 3.3 billion people. In 2017 –52 years later-- the global population reached a staggering 7.5 billion people corresponding to more than a doubling of the Earth's residents over the last half-century.

CHENNAI/LONDON, Jul 11 (IPS) - In a semi-lit room of a southern Chennai neighborhood, a group of women sit in a circle around a table surrounded by large cardboard boxes of "Nirodh" – India's most popular condom.