CANBERRA, Australia, Mar 21 (IPS) - The vast rainforests of Papua New Guinea (PNG) and the Solomon Islands in the southwest Pacific Ocean are crucial for environmental sustainability, survival of indigenous peoples and the wider goal of containing climate change. But forest degradation, driven primarily by excessive commercial logging, most of which is illegal, is a perpetual threat.

Cairo, Mar 20 (IPS) - When the United Nations was still getting ready to mark this year's International Day of Happiness on 20 March, the rulers of an Arab State could have well said: "but we are ahead and have already created a Ministry for Happiness and appointed a young lady to be in charge of it!"

ROME, Mar 20 (IPS) - Should a country's development be measured in smiles instead of dollars? Increasingly, governments and organizations are measuring social progress through happiness. This is in marked contrast to the long-accepted practice of using Gross Domestic Product to measure development, built upon the premise that a country's success can largely be quantified by its economic activity. Though only recently gaining international attention, the push to pursue "gross national happiness" as a policy goal originated over 40 years ago in the small Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan.

UNITED NATIONS, Mar 19 (IPS) - When the only female candidate failed in her attempt to become UN Secretary-General back in late 2006, an Asian diplomat weighed in with an upgraded Biblical quote: "It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle", he said, "than for a woman to become the Secretary-General of the United Nations."

AÑELO, Argentina, Mar 19 (IPS) - The dizzying growth of Añelo, a town in southwest Argentina, driven by the production of shale oil and gas in the Vaca Muerta geological reserve, has slowed down due to the plunge in global oil prices, which has put a curb on local development and is threatening investment and employment.

YEREVAN, ARMENIA, Mar 18 (IPS) - Armenia is prone to natural disasters. Eight out of every 10 citizens are likely to experience a natural disaster at some point during their lifetimes – an earthquake, landslide, hailstorm or flooding. Each year, the country incurs $33 million in damage from such disasters.

YAOUNDE, Cameroon, Mar 18 (IPS) - "They have reduced the quantity of food they used to give us and we still do not know why. But we are managing. We are refugees and we have no choice. All they give us is rice and some soya beans" John Guige, a Nigerian resident and primary school teacher in the Minawao refugee camp in Cameroon's Far North region, told IPS.

UNITED NATIONS, Mar 17 (IPS) - "When it comes to peace talks, women have a special stake," said Gloria Steinem while discussing current peace talks in the Middle East.

Steinem, a prominent activist, joined the 60th annual session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) as part of Donor Direct Action, an NGO connecting women's rights activists to donors.

ROME, Mar 17 (IPS) - The recent German elections went as predicted.. A new right wing, xenophobe party, Alternative for Germany, AFD, has emerged with force, and will bein national Parliament in 2017.This development is unprecedented in German politics since the end of the second world war, and it is widely viewedas part of a general trend - the rise of populist and xenophobe forces all over Europe.

Lund, Sweden, Mar 17 (IPS) - The EUropean Union – a criminal?

The EU that has peace as it's top goal and received Nobel's Peace Prize?

The EU with Schengen and Dublin?