News headlines in 2019, page 75

UNITED NATIONS, Apr 25 (IPS) - Hans Wetzels is a writer for Africa Renewal* published by the United Nations

When Ecuadorean diplomat Luis Gallegos first proposed a "Binding Treaty on Business and Human Rights," many countries and environmental activists welcomed the idea with open arms.

MAIDUGURI, Nigeria, Apr 25 (IPS) - This is part of a series of features from across the globe on human trafficking. IPS coverage is supported by the Riana Group.

"They forcefully took us away and kept us like prisoners," Lydia Musa, a former Boko Haram captive who was abducted at the age of 14 during an attack on her village in Gwoza, in Nigeria's north eastern Borno State, tells IPS. Musa and two other underaged girls were abducted and forced to marry Boko Haram fighters in spite of their protests that they were too young to marry.

WASHINGTON DC, Apr 24 (IPS) - Olga Stankova is with the Communications Department at the International Monetary Fund (IMF)

Within a few short months after taking up her post as governor of the Central Bank of Russia in 2013, Elvira Nabiullina faced a growing economic crisis brought on by plunging oil prices, geopolitical tensions, and sanctions.

UNITED NATIONS, Apr 24 (IPS) - Luis Felipe Lopez-Calva is UN Assistant Secretary-General and UNDP Regional Director for Latin America and the Caribbean

Sustainability is constitutive of the concept of development. Just as economist Amartya Sen has argued that there is no point in discussing the relationship between development and democracy, because democracy is constitutive of the concept of development, there is no point of trying to disentangle sustainability from the notion of development itself.

USPANTÁN, Guatemala, Apr 23 (IPS) - In the stifling heat, Diego Matom takes the bread trays out of the oven and carefully places them on wooden shelves, happy that his business has prospered since his village in northwest Guatemala began to generate its own electricity.

LONDON, Apr 23 (IPS) - When former footballer George Weah became president of Liberia in 2018, media practitioners felt they had in him a democrat who would champion media freedoms. "But we were mistaken," journalist Henry Costa told IPS.

DUBAI, Apr 23 (IPS) - Karishma Asarpot* is an urban planner, blogger and researcher who holds a Master of Science degree in Urbanism from Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands.

Though climate policies aim to reduce GHG emissions, they miss out on emphasizing the importance of urban planning policies

Cities that have ratified the Paris Agreement and pledged to reduce carbon emissions are adopting climate action plans aimed at reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, Apr 23 (IPS) - Privatization is expected by many to promote competition and eliminate corruption. In practice, the converse has been true as privatization beneficiaries have successfully colluded and engaged in new types of corruption to maximize their own gains.

At the risk of reiterating what should be obvious, the question of private or public ownership is distinct from the issue of competition or market forces. Despite the misleading claim that privatization promotes competition, it is competition policy, not privatization, that promotes competition.

STOCKHOLM / ROME, Apr 23 (IPS) - Trump´s electoral success was preceded by a rise of chauvinistic politics in most of Europe, paired with electoral triumphs of far-right candidates in several other countries. A development accompanied by revelations of corrupt leaders laundering and transferring illegally obtained money, aided by financial institutions finding the means to do so. The world seems to move away from a rule-based order to a state of affairs dominated by might and wealth. World leaders´ private business dealings thrive within a global environment where laws intended to protect human rights are becoming increasingly ineffective. Foreign policies appear to be adapted to private gains and personal vendettas. Global financial systems seem to be crafted to facilitate kleptocracy and money laundering, while repression and violence smite whistle-blowers and daring journalists. Endeavours supported by propaganda and smear campaigns orchestrated by political/financial consultants and private investigation firms. All this is made possible through complicated schemes using the internet.

NEW YORK, Apr 22 (IPS) - Dr. Purnaka L. ("PL") de Silva is Director, Institute for Strategic Studies and Democracy (ISSD) Malta

"If we believe in absurdities we shall commit atrocities" - Voltaire

I returned from attending a three-hour Easter Sunday mass at the Fordham University Church around midnight New York time on May 20, 2019, when my phone rang and a colleague asked me what's going on in Sri Lanka? I said what is going on?