News headlines in 2013, page 111

ATLANTA, Georgia, Jun 27 (IPS) - With the announced closures of four nuclear reactors in the United States so far this year and the cancellation of proposed facilities elsewhere in the country, some activists believe the U.S. nuclear industry is beginning to crumble.

NEW DELHI, Jun 27 (IPS) - On the outskirts of Rudraprayag, a town in the northern Indian state of Uttarakhand whose many temples draw tourists and Hindu pilgrims with magnetic force, visitors often stop for a meal at a popular hotel built right on the river Alakananda.

RIO DE JANEIRO, Jun 27 (IPS) - The Catholic Church has become sclerotic and is afraid of facing the issues of post-modernity, Brazilian theologian Frei Betto says, although he hopes that Francis, the first Latin American pope, will inspire it to renew its emphasis on social issues and the defence of the poor.

CUERNAVACA, Mexico, Jun 27 (IPS) - "They brutally repressed us. The mining company buys off people's consciences, it divides the community, but we'll keep fighting it. Some people have had to flee the community," Rosalinda Dionisio, a Zapoteca indigenous woman in the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca, told IPS, sobbing.

JUBA, Jun 27 (IPS) - Since age 18, Zechariah Manyok Biar fought in the revolutionary army that won South Sudan's independence from Sudan in July 2011. But now the 28-year-old is in exile from the country he helped liberate .

WASHINGTON, Jun 27 (IPS) - Large crowds cheered outside the U.S. Supreme Court here on Wednesday morning as the justices inside announced their majority decision that a key part of two-decade-old federal legislation banning same-sex marriage is unconstitutional.

WASHINGTON, Jun 26 (IPS) - Groups promoting human rights here are "cautiously optimistic" that U.S. President Barack Obama's renewed pledge to close the prison at Guantanamo Bay will be fulfilled.

ALBUQUERQUE, New Mexico, Jun 26 (IPS) - By continuing its repressive policies and refusing to engage civil society and moderate political groups in meaningful dialogue for genuine reform, the Khalifa family has squandered its legitimate right to rule Bahrain. King Hamad could still salvage his rule, but he would need to act boldly by taking the following steps.

NEW YORK, Jun 26 (IPS) - A bomb blast on a road. A suicide attack near a grocery store. Such is the uncertainty for ordinary men and women in Afghanistan, where daily life is still marred by violence.

TOKYO, Jun 26 (IPS) - Yukako Harada, an energetic 29-year-old, is part of a small but determined band of women farmers working hard to revitalise Japan's moribund agricultural sector, which is feeling the crunch of an ageing population and a flood of cheap imports.