News headlines in 2018, page 68

IPIRÁ-PINTADAS, Brazil, May 08 (IPS) - Cattle ranching has been severely affected by drought in Brazi's Northeast region, but it has not only survived but has made a comeback in the Jacuípe river basin thanks to an optimal use of water.

UNITED NATIONS, May 08 (IPS) - Izumi Nakamitsu is the United Nations High Representative for Disarmament AffairsEvery day, hundreds of lives are lost due to gun violence worldwide. Guns are responsible for about half of all violent deaths – nearly a quarter million each year. But the dire consequences of gun violence are not limited to those slain by guns. For every person killed by a gun, many more are injured, maimed, and forced to flee their home and community. Still many more live under constant threats of gun violence.

STOCKHOLM, Sweden, May 08 (IPS) - The underlying message at the fifth annual Stockholm Forum on Peace and Development was summed up in its telling title "The politics of peace."But the task ahead was overwhelmingly difficult: How do you advance peace and development against the backdrop of political unrest in parts of Asia and Africa and continued conflicts in the Middle East— all of them amidst rising global military spending triggering arms sales running into billions of dollars.

KAMPALA, May 08 (IPS) - Agnes Igoye serves as Uganda's deputy National Coordinator Prevention of Trafficking in Persons and heads Uganda Immigration training AcademyI was 14-years-old the first time I came face to face with a human trafficker. The Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) raided my home. Ruthless, they demanded virgins and young girls. In a horrifying escape, I endured a treacherous, long journey that ended in an internally displaced people's camp. I was lucky. Many Ugandan children were not. By the end of the nineteen years' civil war, UNICEF estimated that the LRA had abducted some 20,000 children.

MANILA, May 08 (IPS) - "My son in primary school did not attend a birthday celebration because it was cancelled due to bad air -- and we live in Seoul, a great place to live," said Dr. Frank Rijsberman, director-general of the Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI).

UNITED NATIONS, May 07 (IPS) - Patrick Keuleers is Director, Governance and Peace Building, UNDPSince the beginning of the year the world has witnessed 24 national elections in which nearly 100 million people cast their votes. All together in 2018, there will be a total of 68 planned electoral processes in 45 countries ranging from presidential and legislative to local elections. Elections remain one of the key democratic processes through which people express their opinion on the way their country and communities are managed.

BANGKOK, Thailand, May 07 (IPS) - Mobilizing finance for sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth.Asia and the Pacific remains the engine of the global economy. It continues to power trade, investment and jobs the world over. Two thirds of the region's economies grew faster in 2017 than the previous year and the trend is expected to continue in 2018. The region's challenge is now to ensure this growth is robust, sustainable and mobilised to provide more financing for development. It is certainly an opportunity to accelerate progress towards achieving the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

STOCKHOLM, May 07 (IPS) - Africa has long been one of the world's most beleaguered continents – singled out mostly for its conflicts, political and economic instability, rising poverty and hunger, inequalities and its environmental challenges.And in international circles, it is described as "Afro-pessimism."

May 07 (IPS) - Fares al Badwan moved to Buenos Aires alone, from Syria, in 2011. He was 17 years old then and the armed conflict in his country had just broken out. Since then he has managed to bring over his whole family and today he cannot imagine living outside of Argentina. "I like the people here. No one makes you feel like a foreigner," he said.

RUSAPE, Zimbabwe, May 07 (IPS) - Every year, Amos Chandiringa, 43, a farmer in Nemaire village in Makoni district in northeastern Zimbabwe, laboriously waters his tobacco nursery with a watering can. The toil of the job often leaves him without the energy or time to do other household chores.