News headlines in 2019, page 59

BULAWAYO, Zimbabwe, Jun 25 (IPS) - A Jamaican start-up has an innovative solution to help smallholder farmers—many of whom do not have the collateral demanded by financial institutions to access loans—build a track record of their production that is proving better than collateral.

UNITED NATIONS, Jun 25 (IPS) - Young people around the world are facing increasingly insurmountable, persistent barriers as they try to achieve their full potential and secure a prosperous future. However, Central Asia and the Asia-Pacific have already begun working to ensure that no one is left behind.

KINGSTON/PARIS, Jun 24 (IPS) - Dogs barking in the distance. Birds chirping nearby. A man walking through the mist, surrounded by lush vegetation. A distinctive vibrato singing "Speak Softly, Love" over it all.

AMSTERDAM/ROME, Jun 24 (IPS) - As China rapidly replaces Europe and the USA as the key player in developing countries, the Western press is full of articles about the dangers of dealing with the Chinese.

STOCKHOLM / ROME, Jun 24 (IPS) -

I stayed overnight at a motel by the E3.
In my room a smell I'd felt before
I stayed overnight in the echoing house.
Many want to come in through the walls
but most of them can´t make it:
they´re overcome by the white hiss of oblivion.
Anonymous singing drowns in the walls
Discreet tappings that don´t want to be heard
drown-out sighs
my old repartees creeping homelessly.
--Thomas Tranströmer The Gallery ¹

Being a frequent visitor to the Dominican Republic, where I occasionally have enjoyed the high standard, security and excellent service of its resorts, I became puzzled by recent, quiet excessive media reactions to statistically insignificant cases of deaths in these resorts. The number of demises in Dominican resorts have been more or less the same over the years and do not at all differ from those of most other tourist destinations. People die in hotels all over the world. There may even be specific reasons for this and they are far from being unique to the Dominican Republic.

UNITED NATIONS, Jun 24 (IPS) - With a new report projecting a rise in population, specifically in Asia and Africa, the United Nations has warned that continued rapid population growth presents enormous challenges for sustainable development in the world's 134 developing nations.

ROME, Jun 24 (IPS) - Qu Dongyu, China's vice minister for agriculture and rural affairs, was elected to be the next Director-General of FAO, winning a majority of the 191 votes cast in the first round of an election held Sunday.

ROME, Jun 21 (IPS) - Social Democrats, who had been steadily disappearing following the crisis of 2008, have been making a small comeback in the last year. Now they are in power in Spain, Portugal, Sweden, Finland and, most recently, in Denmark.

UNITED NATIONS, Jun 21 (IPS) - A recently-released report by the Washington-based Center for Global Development (CGD) shows that generic drugs, like omeprazole (used to treat heartburn), can cost 20-30 times more in low and middle-income countries than in high-income countries.

ASMARA, Eritrea/ANTWERP, Belguim, Jun 21 (IPS) - Most media narratives about Eritrea suggest an endless stream of young people fleeing the country, who couldn't wait to escape. But the reality is far different and more nuanced—both when it comes to those who have left, and those who chose to remain.