News headlines in August 2012, page 13

PESHAWAR, Pakistan, Aug 20 (IPS) - For the past five years Sharifullah Shah, a local doctor from the conflict-ridden North Waziristan province in Pakistan, has handed over 500 dollars to the Taliban during the month of Ramadan. But this year, he is putting his money straight into the Edhi Welfare Centre, where he knows it will reach those in need.

COLOMBO, Aug 19 (IPS) - Sri Lanka is in for some hard bargaining when it negotiates a new aid pact in 2013 with the European Union (EU), which withdrew a key trade concession  two years ago over this country’s human rights record.

BRATISLAVA, Aug 19 (IPS) - Slovak doctors have launched an unprecedented campaign to rid their own profession of what is widely perceived as endemic bribery.

WARSAW, Aug 19 (IPS) - Present day European farming is based on the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), which was created over six decades ago by countries emerging from severe food shortages that swept the continent during and after the Second World War.

BRATISLAVA, Aug 19 (IPS) - Slovak doctors have launched an unprecedented campaign to rid their own profession of what is widely perceived as endemic bribery.

NEW YORK, Aug 18 (IPS) - The Cambodian government has committed to the construction of two dams along the Mekong River in order to meet a huge demand for electricity, but environmental groups warn that severe repercussions loom for this strategy.

RAMALLAH, Aug 18 (IPS) - A year after their bid for statehood flopped in the United Nations’ Security Council, the Palestine Liberation Organisation is again planning to seek an upgrade in UN status. On Sep. 27, the PLO will approach the UN General Assembly in hopes of becoming a non-member observer state. If their bid is successful, the Palestinians will be eligible to join various UN agencies and will also be able to bring allegations of Israeli war crimes to the International Criminal Court.

TUCSON, Arizona, Aug 18 (IPS) - Fear stalks the streets in the U.S. state of Arizona. Seven-year-old Matthew feels it when his mother crosses the line permitted by the guards of the Tent City - an extension of the Maricopa County Jail - to be photographed with a sign protesting the imprisonment of immigrants.

WASHINGTON, Aug 17 (IPS) - Is a gene more like a tree trunk or more like a baseball bat? A federal court Thursday took a stand on the question, ruling that isolated DNA molecules are “not found in nature", and are therefore more like inventions, such as baseball bats, than natural phenomenon, such as tree trunks.

MADRID, Aug 17 (IPS) - The sun is shining in Spain as it does every summer. But millions of people in this crisis-stricken country are living in the shadow cast by Europe’s highest unemployment rate.