News headlines in 2014, page 78

PUNTARENAS, Costa Rica, Jul 02 (IPS) - Biologist Juan Sánchez drives the leader of two off-road vehicles along a dirt road in southeastern Costa Rica. Officials and experts are on their way to inspect a homestead whose owner has destroyed part of a mangrove swamp.

KIKWIT, DR Congo, Jul 02 (IPS) - Proposals to review the Democratic Republic of Congo's constitution to permit President Joseph Kabila to seek a third term of office, if accepted, will only plunge the Congolese further into poverty and insecurity, experts warn.

JAKARTA, Jul 02 (IPS) - As the world's third-largest democracy heads to the polls next week to elect a new president, environmental activists remain sceptical of the candidates' commitment to tackle climate change.

PESHAWAR, Pakistan, Jul 01 (IPS) - Three days ago, Rameela Bibi was the mother of a month-old baby boy. He died in her arms on Jun. 28, of a chest infection that he contracted when the family fled their home in Pakistan's North Waziristan Agency, where a full-scale military offensive against the Taliban has forced nearly half a million people to flee.

ADDIS ABABA, Jul 01 (IPS) - The streets of Addis Ababa are increasingly turning into water-logged obstacle courses as downpours increase in the run up to Ethiopia's July to September rainy season. Strangers link hands to steady themselves as they step high and gingerly over the spreading puddles and slippery mud.

KIRKUK, Iraq, Jul 01 (IPS) - The Kurdish flag is flying high in the wind from the rooftop of an old brick house inside Kirkuk's millennia-old citadel, as Rashid – a stern-looking young man sitting behind a machine gun – monitors the surroundings.

WASHINGTON, Jul 01 (IPS) - With only a few weeks remaining before the Jul. 20 deadline, the Barack Obama administration issued a warning to Iran that it must accept deep cuts in the number of its centrifuges in order to demonstrate that its nuclear programme is only for peaceful purposes.

WASHINGTON, Jun 30 (IPS) - Facing what some have dubbed a refugee crisis, President Barack Obama is asking for new powers that would significantly speed up the deportation process for tens of thousands of unaccompanied children recently arrived at the southern U.S. border.

JOHANNESBURG, Jun 30 (IPS) - Every year, three million newborn babies and almost 6.6 million children under five die globally, but if the rest of the world looked towards the examples of two of Africa's least-developed countries (LDCs), Rwanda and Ethiopia, they would perhaps be able to save these children.