News headlines in 2013, page 163

UNITED NATIONS, Apr 25 (IPS) - Speaking of the widespread sanitation crisis, U.N. Deputy Secretary-General Jan Eliasson was quick to produce staggering numbers: of the world's seven billion people, about six billion have mobile phones but only about 4.5 billion have access to toilets.

WASHINGTON, Apr 25 (IPS) - Experts here are calling on the United States and the international community to increase pressure on the government of South Sudan to address weaknesses in its central governance.

MEXICO CITY, Apr 25 (IPS) - Environmental organisations in Mexico are hoping to finance the promotion of fuel-efficient wood-fired cookstoves, which reduce harmful greenhouse gas emissions, through the sale of carbon credits on the voluntary market.

YAOUNDÉ, Apr 25 (IPS) - Bordered by a rubber plantation in the west, a forestry plantation in the east and a palm oil farm in the south, the 18 local communities that live in Ocean Division, southern Cameroon, have had an uphill struggle for the rights to their land. 

HARARE, Apr 25 (IPS) - For the last 13 years, Trynos Mbweku, the headman of Mwenezi district in southeastern Zimbabwe, has had to use a cart to fetch water from the only remaining borehole in his area, which lies some 10 kilometres from his home.

WASHINGTON, Apr 24 (IPS) - A decades-long push to require the labelling of foods containing genetically modified ingredients in the United States received a significant boost Wednesday, when bipartisan bills on the issue were simultaneously proposed in the House and Senate.

MEXICO CITY, Apr 24 (IPS) - Trade unions in Canada, the United States and Mexico are preparing protests and legal action against the Mexican subsidiary of Walmart, the world's largest retailer, which is accused of paying bribes and breaching labour rights.

ROME, Apr 24 (IPS) - For a long time it was a given that while Europe was based on defending a more just society, with social values and solidarity, the United States was based on the glory of individualism and competition, and anything public was considered "socialist".

WASHINGTON, Apr 24 (IPS) - It's no wonder that Egypt has floundered in its efforts to create a more democratic system from the ruins of the Mubarak regime.

UXBRIDGE, Canada, Apr 24 (IPS) - Everyone loves penguins, but few will know today is World Penguin Day. Fewer still are those who know penguins are threatened with extinction by climate change and giant fishing trawlers from Europe and Asia stalking the oceans around Antarctica.