News headlines in August 2012, page 18

UNITED NATIONS, Aug 14 (IPS) - Alleged human rights violations and other challenges involving the use of Private Military Security Contractors (PMSCs) have sparked a series of international efforts to create systems of accountability for an increasingly complex transnational industry.

WASHINGTON, Aug 14 (IPS) - With less than three months to go before the U.S. presidential election, over the weekend Barack Obama’s Republican challenger for the presidency, Mitt Romney, finally announced his vice-presidential running mate, a young member of Congress named Paul Ryan.

BUKAVU, DR Congo, Aug 14 (IPS) - Plant diseases affecting bananas and cassava are gaining ground in two provinces in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo, according to South Kivu's provincial minister for agriculture, Gisèle Batembo.

RIO DE JANEIRO, Aug 14 (IPS) - Brazil leads global production of biopolymers, an industry that generates fewer greenhouse gas emissions than fossil fuel-based plastic manufacture. But "green plastics" made from sugarcane have a sour aftertaste.

DAKAR, Aug 14 (IPS) - Military action by West African states against the insurrection in northern Mali would be extremely risky without diplomatic support from neighbouring Algeria and Mauritania, according to International Crisis Group researcher Gilles Yabi.

JERUSALEM, Aug 14 (IPS) - Thousands of ultra-Orthodox men, women and children have been demonstrating in Jerusalem against the Israeli government’s move to make military service mandatory for members of their community.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, India, Aug 14 (IPS) - Four-year-old Deepak Yadav, a mentally disabled boy from Indore city in the Indian state Madhya Pradesh, was being treated for stomach problems at Chacha Nehru Bal Chikitsalaya, a government hospital for children attached to the M. G. M. Medical College.

PESHAWAR, Pakistan, Aug 14 (IPS) - Measles outbreaks, which have killed at least 100 children in Pakistan’s militancy-hit border areas since May, have prompted calls by experts for better cooperation in territories adjacent to Afghanistan with international immunisation campaigns.

HAWAII, U.S., Aug 14 (IPS) - Turkish-Iranian relations have been rocky since the deepening of the Syrian imbroglio, but the latest row suggests a new low.

GUATEMALA CITY, Aug 14 (IPS) - “Service is definitely improving. Transmetro is good quality and Transurbano is using the prepaid system, which means they can’t charge you extra,” said Manolo Contreras, one of the thousands of users of the public transit system in the Guatemalan capital, which is under renovation.