News headlines in 2020, page 109

NEW YORK, Feb 05 (IPS) - Residents of Venezuela's southern Bolívar state are suffering amputations and other horrific abuses at the hands of armed groups, including Venezuelan groups called "syndicates" in the area and Colombian armed groups operating in the region, both of which exercise control over gold mines, Human Rights Watch said Tuesday, February 4.

MBABANE, Feb 04 (IPS) - Africa's inability to produce adequate skills is negatively impacting its economic growth.

CANBERRA, Australia, Feb 04 (IPS) - I love visiting Canberra in the summer. The air is clean. The water in lake Burley Griffin is crystal clear and the "go boats" merrily bob up and down with their wine sipping occupants while black swans frolic in peace.

KUALA LUMPUR and PENANG, Feb 04 (IPS) - Financialization has worsened inequality through various channels, including macroeconomic policies. For example, quantitative easing and low, if not negative interest rates have fuelled credit and asset price bubbles, while fiscal spending cuts have adversely affected those depending on government assistance.

GENEVA / JOHANNESBURG / KINSHASA, Feb 04 (IPS) - Eleven-year-old "Anne" went to a health facility with her mother in the conflict-affected province of Ituri, in northeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. At first, she could barely tell her story.

NEW YORK, Feb 03 (IPS) - We are now living in a hyper communicative world where news does travel faster than lightning. Boundaries, borders, geographical and time differences have become next to obsolete in today's speed driven world.

At any point in time people, news and local occurrences can influence internationally without much local isolation. Along with the advantages of technology, communications and connections world is also facing new challenges that are proportionally evolving with advancement. One region affected today is affecting the global economy and population in frenzy of minutes, hours and days.

NAIROBI, Kenya, Feb 03 (IPS) - A recent opinion piece in the New York Times titled, "Kenya's New Digital IDs May Exclude Millions of Minorities" raises an issue that the UN is passionate about: that the pursuit of sustainable development should leave no one behind.

Djibouti City, Feb 03 (IPS) - At the Closing Ceremony of the III ForumBIE 2030, 38 governments, civil society organisations and academic entities became the first to sign the Universal Declaration of Balanced and Inclusive Education (UDBIE).

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka, Feb 03 (IPS) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin (Bibi) Netanyahu was slapped corruption charges last week while he was hobnobbing with US President Donald Trump in Washington. Bibi has, apparently, done his homework in psychology. He knew the quickest way to get around Trump was to flatter him.

NEW YORK, Feb 03 (IPS) - In addition to the emotional stress and sorrow of widowhood, most people are unprepared to deal with the daunting challenges following the death of a spouse. Rather than treating widowhood as a taboo subject or something to ponder only in old age, couples need to discuss, plan and make decisions early on regarding the eventual and inevitable passing away of one's spouse.