News headlines in 2019, page 56

UNITED NATIONS, Jul 04 (IPS) - As the focus of Australian politics shifts away from refugee and asylum-seeker policies, the government avoids accountability for inhumane actions.

UNITED NATIONS, Jul 04 (IPS) - A military strike on a detention centre for migrants in Libya that claimed dozens of lives on Tuesday Jul. 2 has reignited a debate over the poor treatment of the mainly African people who transit through the turbulent country.

UNITED NATIONS, Jul 04 (IPS) - Environmental and humanitarian action is often understood as two different sectors. However, the lack of awareness regarding its intersections could lead to further long-term devastation.

OVALLE, Chile, Jul 04 (IPS) - Children from the neighboring municipalities of Ovalle and Río Hurtado in northern Chile are harvesting rain and recycling greywater in their schools to irrigate fruit trees and vegetable gardens, in an initiative aimed at combating the shortage of water in this semi-arid region.

USPANTÁN, Guatemala, Jul 03 (IPS) - Because the government has never provided them with electricity, indigenous communities in the mountains of northwest Guatemala had no choice but to generate their own energy.

NEW YORK, Jul 03 (IPS) - Sri Lanka continues to be on a security alert long after the devastation caused by a string of bombings on Easter Sunday this year.

Raisa Wickrematunge, Editor of Groundviews, told IPS: "There has been a tightening of security. There are now security checks being carried out outside hotels and shopping malls - either through scanners or bag and body searches".

UNITED NATIONS, Jul 03 (IPS) - How effective is the global war on drugs?

The latest statistics released by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) are staggering: 35 million people across the globe currently have a substance use disorder, and as of 2017, 585,000 people have died worldwide as a result of drug use.

ASUNCION, Paraguay, Jul 02 (IPS) - Silvia Morimoto is UNDP Resident Representative in Paraguay

The statistics are alarming. By 2050, the world will require an estimated 60 percent growth in agricultural production to meet the food demand of a population of close to 9 billion people.

KUALA LUMPUR and PENANG, Jul 02 (IPS) - The relationship between finance and the real economy is arguably at the root of the contemporary economic malaise. Unlike earlier acceptance of simple linear causation, recent recognition of a curvilinear relationship between finance and economic growth, implying ‘diminishing returns', has important implications.

UNITED NATIONS, Jul 02 (IPS) - As the weather continues to change and land becomes degraded, the socio-economic security implications are vast. In an effort to tackle these issues, climate-smart agriculture is quickly gaining traction around the world.