News headlines in August 2012, page 25

CHITWAN, Nepal, Aug 06 (IPS) - Farmers in this fertile central district of south Nepal are convinced that an intense drought between May and early July that destroyed their maize crops is the result of climate change. 

BUKAVU, RD Congo, Aug 06 (IPS) - Just two years ago, rice farmers on the Ruzizi plain in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo were content to harvest 2.5 tonnes of rice per hectare. The adoption of new techniques has seen their output rise to between six and eight tonnes, with smallholder farmers also increasing their local market share.

UNITED NATIONS, Aug 06 (IPS) - The London Borough of Tower Hamlets, the “East End,” is the historic core of England, the home of the Tower of London,  and now it is a Gateway borough to the Olympics. It is also the site of St Mary Le Bow church - real Cockneys should be born within the sound of its bells-  but nowadays, there are probably more mosques than churches, which helps explain why Lutfur Rahman, the first directly Mayor of the borough, is also the country’s first, and so far only, Muslim to hold the office.

JERUSALEM, Aug 06 (IPS) - “With our spirit, with our blood, we’ll redeem you, O Noble Sanctuary!” the veiled teenagers fervently sing in unison in honour of the Muslim Holy month of Ramadan. Israeli police officers in uniform and full battle gear sit unimpressed under pine trees; others patrol the compound.

RAMALLAH, West Bank, Aug 05 (IPS) - “It will collapse, and the collapse will be harder when it happens later,” says Tareq Sadeq, Palestinian economist and professor at Birzeit University, about the financial bubble building up in the Palestinian Authority government.

ISTANBUL, Aug 04 (IPS) - In a display of muscle-flexing, Turkish tanks this week carried out military exercises on the Syrian border, just a few kilometres away from towns that Syrian Kurds had seized from Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's forces.

CHENNAI, Aug 04 (IPS) - At 4:30 a.m. on the morning of Jul. 30, sleeping passengers in carriage S 11 on the Chennai-bound Tamilnadu Express were awoken by a blazing fire, as the train approached the east coast town of Nellore, just two and a half hours shy of its final destination.

LILONGWE, Aug 04 (IPS) - The move in Malawi to close down Chinese businesses outside of the four major cities has been condemned as xenophobic by rights organisations. A new law enforced Jul. 31 barred foreigners from carrying out trade in Malawi’s outlying and rural areas.

SANTO DOMINGO, Aug 03 (IPS) - One of the major difficulties to overcome in climate change adaptation policies in the Dominican Republic is society’s low awareness of the risks, even though this Caribbean island nation is seriously exposed to the impacts of the phenomenon.

UNITED NATIONS, Aug 03 (IPS) - A little overshadowed by the Olympics, the Yeosu 2012 Expo is, in its own way, doing more than the London Games to promote global harmony - and without stirring up the waters the way the British did when they posted the ROK flag for the DPRK women’s soccer team.