News headlines in 2013, page 65

SPOKANE, Washington, Sep 01 (IPS) - Native American tribes in the United States have taken the lead in opposing the expansion of the Athabasca Tar Sands in Alberta, Canada, engaging in civil disobedience to the point of arrest and attempting to physically block shipments of construction equipment from passing through their native lands.

KOLKATA, Sep 01 (IPS) - Naomi Fontanos is seeing a change from when she went holidaying in 2002. Then she had run into ignorance about transgender people or worse at hotels, restaurants and other business establishments in Boracay, the popular tourist destination south of Manila.

ANTAKYA, Turkey, Aug 31 (IPS) - As the United States prepares to fire Tomahawk cruise missiles on military targets inside Syria, Syrians are preparing for a new phase of the conflict that has already left more than 100,000 people dead.

WASHINGTON, Aug 31 (IPS) - U.S. President Barack Obama indicated Friday he would soon conduct what he called "very limited" military action against Syria to punish its alleged use of chemical weapons which, according to the White House, killed more than 1,400 people in several Damascus suburbs last week.

UNITED NATIONS, Aug 31 (IPS) - If and when the United States launches a military attack on Syria, one of the biggest political losers would be the United Nations.

WASHINGTON, Aug 30 (IPS) - The U.S. Justice Department on Thursday issued surprise guidance directing its attorneys not to sue states that have moved to de-criminalise the recreational use of marijuana, so long as those states implement strict regulatory regimes.

WASHINGTON, Aug 30 (IPS) - Now that we have heard Secretary of State John Kerry's emotional plea for us to believe the still rather ambiguous intelligence on chemical weapons use in Syria, there are far more substantive answers to be sought from the Obama administration.

BRASILIA, Aug 30 (IPS) - Today's new world of digital communications presents public media outlets with a complex challenge: to conquer loyal and active audiences, with programming that is beholden neither to governments, their main funders, nor to market imperatives.

BOGOTA, Aug 30 (IPS) - A strike declared nearly two weeks ago in Colombia by farmers and joined later by truck drivers, health workers, miners and students spread to include protests in the cities before mushrooming into a general strike Thursday, demanding changes in the government's economic policies.

KAMPALA?, Aug 30 (IPS) - For four years Isaac Godfrey Nabwana made and sold bricks in Kampala's Wakalinga slum. But now, thanks to his labours, he is building what he hopes will become Uganda's answer to Nollywood.