News headlines in July 2013, page 2

WASHINGTON, Jul 30 (IPS) - Newly published recollections by the former French ambassador to Iran suggest that Iran was not running a covert nuclear weapons programme that it then decided to halt in late 2003, as concluded by U.S. intelligence in 2007.

RIO DE JANEIRO, Jul 30 (IPS) - Ten years ago, Brazil yielded to agribusiness pressure and legalised the cultivation of genetically modified (GM) soy. Today it is the world's second leading producer of GM crops, surpassed only by the United States.

TOKYO, Jul 30 (IPS) - Life for Yoshihiro Watanabe and his wife Mutsuko, mushroom and rice farmers from Fukushima, has changed drastically since the disastrous meltdowns in the Dai Ichi nuclear plant that was hit by a massive tsunami after a 9.0 strong earthquake struck on Mar. 11, 2011.

NIAMEY, Jul 30 (IPS) - For El Hadji Souley Moussa, a 60-year-old retired bank employee in Niger, "marrying off a daughter when she is young is a source of great pride. This way, she is protected from pregnancy outside of marriage."

HARARE, Jul 30 (IPS) - At a recent campaign rally in Zimbabwe's Midlands Province, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai pledged to establish rural-based companies to create employment. It was a promise that appealed to 34-year-old sociologist Agnes Ngwenya who graduated from the University of Zimbabwe 10 years ago, but has not yet found work.

WASHINGTON, Jul 30 (IPS) - Within days of the inauguration of Hassan Rouhani as Iran's new president, both Tehran and Washington appear to be sending positive signals to each other.

WASHINGTON, Jul 30 (IPS) - Six months of United States diplomatic efforts have finally restarted talks between Israelis and Palestinians, yet pessimism about their potential for success persists.

LOS ANGELES, Jul 29 (IPS) - When Argentina defaulted on its national debt in 2001, U.S. hedge funds swooped in to buy the nation's bonds at pennies on the dollar, confident they would eventually prevail in the U.S. legal system and force the country to pay out in full.

RIO DE JANEIRO, Jul 29 (IPS) - Pope Francis' first overseas trip, to Brazil, the country with the largest number of Catholics in the world, was marked with setbacks, disorganisation and lack of infrastructure for an event that brought half a million pilgrims to the city of Rio de Janeiro.

CAJAMARCA, Colombia, Jul 29 (IPS) - People in a farming town in central Colombia voted overwhelmingly against global corporation AngloGold Ashanti's La Colosa gold mine.