News headlines in 2013, page 87

NIAMEY, Jul 30 (IPS) - For El Hadji Souley Moussa, a 60-year-old retired bank employee in Niger, "marrying off a daughter when she is young is a source of great pride. This way, she is protected from pregnancy outside of marriage."

HARARE, Jul 30 (IPS) - At a recent campaign rally in Zimbabwe's Midlands Province, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai pledged to establish rural-based companies to create employment. It was a promise that appealed to 34-year-old sociologist Agnes Ngwenya who graduated from the University of Zimbabwe 10 years ago, but has not yet found work.

WASHINGTON, Jul 30 (IPS) - Within days of the inauguration of Hassan Rouhani as Iran's new president, both Tehran and Washington appear to be sending positive signals to each other.

WASHINGTON, Jul 30 (IPS) - Six months of United States diplomatic efforts have finally restarted talks between Israelis and Palestinians, yet pessimism about their potential for success persists.

LOS ANGELES, Jul 29 (IPS) - When Argentina defaulted on its national debt in 2001, U.S. hedge funds swooped in to buy the nation's bonds at pennies on the dollar, confident they would eventually prevail in the U.S. legal system and force the country to pay out in full.

RIO DE JANEIRO, Jul 29 (IPS) - Pope Francis' first overseas trip, to Brazil, the country with the largest number of Catholics in the world, was marked with setbacks, disorganisation and lack of infrastructure for an event that brought half a million pilgrims to the city of Rio de Janeiro.

CAJAMARCA, Colombia, Jul 29 (IPS) - People in a farming town in central Colombia voted overwhelmingly against global corporation AngloGold Ashanti's La Colosa gold mine.

PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, Jul 29 (IPS) - As Caribbean countries prepare to observe Emancipation Day on Aug. 1, they are also caught up in an ongoing debate over reparations for slavery.

ATLANTA, Georgia, Jul 29 (IPS) - Two Congressional Democrats have co-sponsored new legislation called the Save America's Pollinators Act of 2013 to take emergency action to save the remaining bees in the U.S., and in turn, the U.S. food supply.

SEATTLE, Washington, Jul 29 (IPS) - Puzzled by the immigration debate in the United States? Remember the Maginot Line.