News headlines in 2013, page 162

HALKIDIKI, Greece, Apr 27 (IPS) - Any sense of tranquility that hangs around the mountain of Skouries in northern Greece, 80 km east of Greece's second largest city Thessaloniki, is a façade. Home to some of the oldest forests in Greece, the pristine region is now a battleground, as the local population takes on the Canadian mining giant Eldorado Gold Corporation and its local subsidiary, Hellas Gold.

WASHINGTON, Apr 26 (IPS) - Nearly a dozen U.S. cities have announced their interest in withdrawing municipal investments from fossil fuel companies, joining a fast-growing movement among colleges and universities that supporters say is allowing citizens concerned with environmental degradation and global climate change to act in lieu of federal action from the U.S. Congress.

BUENOS AIRES, Apr 26 (IPS) - Comprehensive judicial reforms pushed by the government of Argentina on the argument that they will democratise the justice system are moving ahead in Congress in the midst of staunch resistance by the opposition, heated debate, and threats of future lawsuits challenging them as unconstitutional.

UNITED NATIONS, Apr 26 (IPS) - Ishita Chaudhry spent the past 36 hours listening to U.N. delegates discuss population growth and development. She noticed that on "controversial" topics, such as sexual and reproductive rights, young people's voices often get lost.

BELGRADE, Apr 26 (IPS) - Up to a quarter of women in Europe have experienced domestic violence at some point in their lives. But despite the widespread nature of the phenomenon, more often than not we ignore it. A short video launched last month in Serbia managed to break this silence.

CAIRO, Apr 26 (IPS) - The mob that surrounded the home of Mohamed Nour, an Egyptian Shia living in Cairo's Bab El-Shaariya district, claimed it was on a mission to "inoculate" Egypt against Shia religious beliefs. Without intervention, Shia doctrine would spread across Egypt "like a cancer," they had warned.

LILONGWE, Apr 26 (IPS) - Each night Esnart Phiri, a widow with five children, sleeps outside the gates of the state-run maize trader or Admarc market, in Malawi's capital Lilongwe, as she waits for days on end to buy maize.

WASHINGTON, Apr 26 (IPS) - A White House letter Thursday to Congressional leaders suggesting chemical weapons use by the Syrian government of Bashar al-Assad has reignited debate about direct U.S. military involvement in the war-torn country.

LISBON, Apr 25 (IPS) - The anniversary of the peaceful Carnation Revolution that overthrew Portugal's 1926-1974 dictatorship has gone from being a popular celebration to a day of mass protests against the draconian austerity policies of the government of Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho.

BOGOTA, Apr 25 (IPS) - International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) initiatives working to overcome poverty and improve food security in the Colombian countryside can make a positive contribution to government efforts to tackle some of the most neglected problems facing this South American country.