News stories by IPS Correspondents, page 10

, Jul 12 (IPS) - Farming flowers in slums is becoming an option for jobless youths in cities across Cameroon. Flowers and ornamental trees are planted to decorate compounds ,roadsides, lanes and tourism sites. Aaron Kaah reports.

, Jul 12 (IPS) - Starting plantation farming in Cameroon in the 1980’s, and the spraying of pesticides, almost drove certain snail species to extinction. But farmers in the coastal regions of Cameroon are now cultivating the animals for food, traditional medicine and income.

BUENOS AIRES, Jul 11 (IPS) - The governments of most of the countries that share the Río de la Plata basin are doing little or nothing to halt the golden mussel invasion, despite the serious damages and losses it is causing.Limnoperna fortunei, an inedible freshwater bivalve mollusk, is native to the rivers and streams of China and Southeast Asia. From Asia, it travels around the world as a “hitchhiker” or “stowaway” on ocean-going cargo vessels. It first appeared in South America in 1991.

WASHINGTON, Jul 11 (IPS) - A major U.S. energy company, AgriSol Energy, is accused of engaging in land grabs in Tanzania that would displace more than 160,000 Burundian refugees who have lived there for decades, according to a report by the Oakland Institute, an organisation focused on environmental issues.

, Jul 10 (IPS) - Honey producers in Cameroon are looking to restore bee habitats by planting trees in areas where deforestation have left the countryside bare.

CAIRNS, Australia, Jul 10 (IPS) - Coral reef scientists urged local and national governments to take action to save the world’s coral reefs and said they’d be “on call 24/7? to assist politicians and officials.

UNITED NATIONS, Jul 10 (IPS) - The slow progress of the first week of arms trade treaty negotiations has sparked concerns among strong treaty advocates who sense the delaying tactics of a sceptical minority.

, Jul 09 (IPS) - WARSAW, Jul 7 2012 (IPS) - Romanian President Traian Basescu is close to being impeached after the Parliament suspended him Friday. The political crisis, however, distracts from citizens’ calls for a more responsive political class and a halt to declining standards of living.