News headlines in 2013, page 133

UNITED NATIONS, Jun 03 (IPS) - When the 193-member U.N. General Assembly (UNGA) holds is first-ever high-level meeting on nuclear disarmament next September, there is little or no hope that any of the nuclear powers will make a firm commitment to gradually phase out or abandon their lethal arsenals.

JOHANNESBURG, Jun 03 (IPS) - Competing players in the tourism industry in southern Africa are putting aside their rivalry in pursuit of a common goal – a big boost in tourist numbers to the region.

UNITED NATIONS, Jun 03 (IPS) - U.S. President Barack Obama is set to host his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping on Jun. 7-8 for their first bilateral meeting as heads of state. Figuring on their agenda is how to address a precarious North Korea, which is armed with a small nuclear arsenal and vying for a bigger one.

BUENOS AIRES, Jun 03 (IPS) - Poverty no longer explains the high secondary school dropout rate in Argentina, one of the richest countries in Latin America.

JUBA, Jun 03 (IPS) - Susana Apai Wani has lived as a widow for more than two decades since her husband, James Wani, was arrested in 1992 by a policeman who accused him of collaborating with the Sudan People's Liberation Movement, which was a rebel political movement at the time.

JHIRPU PHULPINGKATT, Nepal, Jun 02 (IPS) - Residents of Jhirpu Phulpingkatt, a village nestled in the foothills of the Himalayas, about 110 km from Nepal's capital Kathmandu, are on red alert.

NEW YORK, Jun 02 (IPS) - Growing up as a child, Trisha Arlin had never seen a woman rabbi. Back then, women were not allowed to read the Torah, nor were they allowed to serve in synagogues.

GOMA, DR Congo, Jun 02 (IPS) - "Many hospitals and health centres" that are not run by NGOs "do not meet health standards," according to Dominique Baabo, provincial medical inspector for North Kivu province in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.

AUKI, Solomon Islands, Jun 01 (IPS) - Forty-five-year-old Serah Kei began building her artificial island and eco-lodge resort 26 years ago in Langa Langa Lagoon, located on the Solomon Island's Malaita Province, about four hours by boat from the nation's capital, Honiara. Kei, a single mother, paid for the construction by undertaking the laborious task of making and selling ‘shell money' and finally opened Serah's Lagoon Hideaway, which accommodates up to twelve visitors, in 2006.

PORTO ALEGRE, Brazil, Jun 01 (IPS) - Healthcare for Brazil's indigenous minority is in poor health, according to U.N. experts, missionaries, social workers and native people themselves.