News headlines in 2013, page 62

UNITED NATIONS, Sep 05 (IPS) - A group of about 20 "eminent persons" is to be tasked with an unenviable job: convince eight recalcitrant countries to join the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT).

SÃO PAULO, Sep 05 (IPS) - Everything indicates that the decisive battle between harnessing hydropower and preserving the Amazon will play out in the Tapajós river basin in Brazil. At stake there are a potential of nearly 30,000 MW and a vital part of the Amazon rainforest.

YAOUNDE, Sep 05 (IPS) - When Francois Biloa fell ill with malaria, his family did what they had always done in the past – they gave him anti-malaria drugs and antibiotics bought from the local market. Only when his condition worsened and he became bedridden and fell unconscious, did his family take him to a local clinic in Cameroon's capital Yaoundé.

CHANGTHANG, India, Sep 05 (IPS) - The famed pashmina shawl that keeps the cold away – in style and at a price – could itself have become the victim of winter. Thousands of goats whose fine wool is weaved into pashmina have perished in extreme cold being associated with climate change.

WASHINGTON, Sep 05 (IPS) - With Congress still deliberating over Barack Obama's request for authorisation to take military action against Syria, the powerful Israel lobby here has taken the lead in pressing the president's case.

UNITED NATIONS, Sep 04 (IPS) - The United States, which is preparing to launch a military strike on Syria, is being cautioned by several former world leaders and Nobel Peace laureates to seek a political solution to the ongoing crisis - and forego armed intervention in the beleaguered Middle Eastern nation.

WASHINGTON, Sep 04 (IPS) - An international convention enters into effect on Thursday that could eventually extend labour rights to as many as 100 million domestic workers across the globe, a constituency that has historically been bypassed by national laws.

SAN SALVADOR, Sep 04 (IPS) - Few people today know that when the first news agencies were created in the 19th century, the French Havas and the British Reuters divided the world between themselves.

TEGUCIGALPA, Sep 04 (IPS) - Human rights defenders and members of the opposition in Honduras see a new elite military unit created to engage in policing as a drastic setback for the demilitarisation efforts that began two decades ago.

BUENOS AIRES, Sep 04 (IPS) - Latin America's cash transfer programmes are a more effective weapon against poverty and social inequality than economic growth alone, according to a study by two Argentine economists.