News headlines in October 2014, page 5

BISHKEK, Oct 23 (IPS) - Pensioner Jyparkul Karaseyitova says she cannot afford meat anymore. At her local bazaar in Kyrgyzstan's capital, Bishkek, the price for beef has jumped nine percent in the last six weeks. And she is not alone feeling the pain of rising inflation.

GENEVA, Oct 23 (IPS) - As Juan Evo Morales Ayma, popularly known as 'Evo', celebrates his victory for a third term as Bolivia's president on a platform of "anti-imperialism" and radical socio-economic policies, he can also claim credit for ushering in far-reaching social reforms such as the Bolivian "Law against Political Harassment and Violence against Women" enacted in 2012.

AÑELO, Argentina, Oct 23 (IPS) - This small town in southern Argentina is nearly a century old, but the unconventional fossil fuel boom is forcing it to basically start over, from scratch. The wave of outsiders drawn by the shale fuel fever has pushed the town to its limits, while the plan to turn it into a "sustainable city of the future" is still only on paper.

MARRAKECH, Oct 23 (IPS) - Policy and development practitioners say Africa is at a development cross roads and argue that the continent — increasingly an attractive destination for economic and agriculture investment — should use the window of opportunity presented by a low carbon economy to implement new knowledge and information to transform the challenges posed by climate change into opportunities for social development.

WASHINGTON, Oct 23 (IPS) - A federal jury here Wednesday convicted one former Blackwater contractor of murder and three of his colleagues of voluntary manslaughter in the deadly shootings of 14 unarmed civilians killed in Baghdad's Nisour Square seven years ago.

UNITED NATIONS, Oct 22 (IPS) - When the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) captured a treasure trove of U.S. weapons from fleeing Iraqi soldiers last month, one of the rebel leaders with a morbid sense of humour was quoted as saying rather sarcastically: "We hope the Americans would honour their agreements and service our helicopters."

BONN, Oct 22 (IPS) - The 410,000 people who took to the streets for climate action in New York City during the U.N. Climate Summit would have been outraged by the 90-minute delay and same-old political posturing at the first day of a crucial round of climate treaty negotiations in Bonn at the World Congress Center.

PYEONGCHANG, Republic of Korea, Oct 22 (IPS) - For over 20 years, Mote Bahadur Pun of Nepal's western Myagdi district has been growing ‘Paris polyphylla' - a Himalayan herb used to cure pain, burns and fevers.

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 22 (IPS) - To mainstream biodiversity concerns into development planning, we must offer a compelling rationale and demonstrate biodiversity's relevance to wealth generation, job creation and general human wellbeing. Only a persuasive "why" resonating throughout society will successfully get us to urgently needed negotiations of who, what, where, when and how to halt disastrous biodiversity loss.

WASHINGTON, Oct 22 (IPS) - Despite media hype, missteps by federal health agencies, and apparent efforts by right-wing and some neo-conservatives to foment fear about the possible spread of the Ebola virus in the U.S., most of the public remain at least "fairly" confident in the authorities' ability to deal with the virus.