News headlines for “Consumption and Consumerism”, page 1325
Poor Infrastructure Makes Imports Cheaper in Indonesia
- Inter Press Service

JAKARTA, Sep 17 (IPS) - Indonesia suffers from a malaise: an appalling lack of infrastructure which makes a mandarin orange that travels thousands of miles from Argentina cost nearly the same as another picked locally.
Floods Dampen Thai Adaptation Plans
- Inter Press Service

BANGKOK, Sep 16 (IPS) - Thailand’s flood-management blueprint received a jolt when the dykes in Sukhothai were breached by the rain-swollen Yom river last week, submerging large stretches of the former royal capital.
Saving the Top 100 Threatened Species – a Question of Valuing Life
- Inter Press Service

JEJU, South Korea, Sep 15 (IPS) - The Red River Giant softshell turtle (Rafetus swinhoei) is the stuff of legend in Vietnam. The fabled turtle in Hanoi’s Hoan Kiem Lake is popularly known by the name Kim Qui or Golden Turtle God, and it made its first historical appearance in 250 BC.
Czechs Weigh Human Rights Against Business
- Inter Press Service

PRAGUE, Sep 15 (IPS) - The Czech foreign ministry has insisted the country’s support for human rights is “not for sale” after calls from the prime minister to drop “fashionable political causes” such as supporting the Dalia Lama and the jailed Russian pop group Pussy Riot.
Saving the Lives of Malwai’s Children
- Inter Press Service

CHIKHWAWA, Malawi, Sep 15 (IPS) - Three-month-old Simplicious Gift lives in Mafunga village in Malawi’s southern rural district of Chikhwawa, 48 kilometres from the commercial capital, Blantyre. His is a poor farming village of about 1,200 people who live off their harvests and the produce from their livestock of goats, pigs and cows.
Fighting for a Free Press in Sudan
- Inter Press Service

KHARTOUM, Sep 15 (IPS) - In Sudan’s newspaper district in Khartoum East, dozens of people sit beneath the trees sipping tea or reading newspapers. Most are journalists who once worked for the 10 newspapers that were either forced closed by the country’s security services or because of economic constraints that resulted after the government raised printing taxes in an attempt to prevent the media from reporting on anti-government demonstrations.
Nicaragua Stands Out in War on Drugs in Central America
- Inter Press Service

MANAGUA, Sep 15 (IPS) - With strict security measures and the deployment of special heavily-armed troops, Nicaragua is waging a successful war in the courts, by sea, and on land against drug traffickers shipping drugs through Central America to the United States.
Surge in Poaching Tied to Weakened Ivory Ban
- Inter Press Service

WASHINGTON, Sep 15 (IPS) - With 2011 marking the deadliest year for poaching-related elephant deaths in Africa since an international ivory ban went into effect in 1989, a new investigative report released here Friday points to the ongoing impact of religious custom as well as the newfound economic might of China.
Fears for Food Security Rise with West African Floodwaters
- Inter Press Service

NIAMEY, Sep 14 (IPS) - Hundreds of thousands of people have been affected by heavy flooding along the Niger River over the last few weeks. Niger, Mali and Benin have been particularly hard hit, with dozens of deaths, tens of thousands of houses destroyed and vast areas of farmland submerged by rising waters.
Carbon Trading Scheme Close to Collapse
- Inter Press Service

BRUSSELS, Sep 14 (IPS) - By 2020, countries that are signatory to the Kyoto protocol will have accumulated more than 17 billion tonnes of surplus emission reduction permits, a new study shows. This enormous surplus not only drives the carbon price close to zero, but also jeapordises the chances of reaching a new global climate deal.
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