Global Issues
News headlines for “Free Trade and Globalization”, page 393
Faith Leaders Join the Fight against Child Marriage
- Inter Press Service
Mahbubnagar, India, Feb 26 (IPS) - Anger is an inner demon that one must have a strong grip on, believes Virayya Shastri - head priest of Maddi Madugu Anjaneya Swamy temple in southern India's Mahbubnagar district. But mention ‘child marriage' and the priest finds himself struggling to stay calm. ""Early marriage ruins a girl's body and scars her mind. There is no way you can call yourself a believer when you support such a thing," says the priest turned anti-child marriage advocate.
UNDP Pledges to Help Eradicate Poverty, Hunger By 2030
- Inter Press Service
UNITED NATIONS, Feb 24 (IPS) - The UN Development Programme (UNDP) celebrated its 50th anniversary this week with a pledge to help implement the UN's post-2015 development agenda aimed at eliminating extreme poverty and hunger by 2030.
When the agency was founded in 1966, one in every three people was living in poverty. But that number has changed to one in eight, according to UNDP figures.
Obama in Cuba: the Reasons for His Trip
- Inter Press Service
MIAMI, Feb 24 (IPS) - At this stage of the process that began in December 2014 with the surprise announcement of the opening of relations between the United States and Cuba, hardly anything counts as spectacular news. The detail in the decision by Washington and Havana that made news in the traditional sense (man bites dog) was that the plan to sit down and talk implied that Cuba gave up its prior demand that the embargo be lifted. The United States, for its part, accepted that Cuba did not undertake to make any special changes to its own political system.
Fall in Commodity Prices Rings Alarm Bells in Papua New Guinea
- Inter Press Service
CANBERRA, Australia, Feb 24 (IPS) - Resource-rich Papua New Guinea (PNG) is seen as an economic powerhouse in the Pacific Islands with a state-led focus on resource extraction initially expected to drive one of the world's highest growth rates of 15 per cent last year. But in the wake of falling commodity prices, GDP growth has plummeted from 8.5 per cent in 2014 to a forecasted 3 per cent this year. As the government faces a growing deficit between revenue and expenditure, exacerbated by high public debt, experts in the country believe greater efforts to diversify the economy are essential.
Obama and Raúl Castro to Launch New Era with Historic Visit
- Inter Press Service
HAVANA, Feb 23 (IPS) - U.S. President Barack Obama and his Cuban counterpart Raúl Castro will go down in history as two statesmen who managed to overcome more than half a century of hostility to bring back together two neighbouring countries with too many shared interests to remain at loggerheads.
Argentina’s Ties with China: Pragmatism over Politics
- Inter Press Service
BUENOS AIRES, Feb 22 (IPS) - Argentina's new government is reviewing several major projects to be carried out jointly with China. But aside from a few changes in priorities, the administration is not expected to put the brakes on an alliance that Beijing classifies as strategic.
UNDP at 50 Seeks Broad Coalition Targeting Sustainable Development
- Inter Press Service
UNITED NATIONS, Feb 22 (IPS) - Fifty years ago, one in every three people around the world was living in poverty. It was against that backdrop that the United Nations Development Programme, UNDP, was founded in 1966.
Ever since, UNDP has been a leader in working for a more fair and prosperous world for all. We have worked with governments, civil society, the private sector, and philanthropy to empower people and build resilient nations.
Uneducated Women Entrepreneurs Defeat Poverty
- Inter Press Service
SRINAGAR, India, Feb 22 (IPS) - Maryam Yousuf, 50, gently washes her hands under a common tap outside her house in Saida Kadal, a grassy middle-class locale encircled by the famous Dal Lake in Srinagar, Kashmir's capital. She puts on a Pheran, the traditional long loose gown, and holding a large steel bucket walks towards a dimly-lit cowshed, made up of wooden shingles, in a corner of her home backyard. Nearby, children are playing cricket, flaunting wooden sticks as bats, and a flock of chicken cluck and nibble at left-over vegetables.
Sterilisation of HIV-positive Women
- Inter Press Service
KAMPALA, Uganda, Feb 18 (IPS) - Mayimuna Monica* has been living with HIV for over 10 years and wants to have a baby. But she can't because her uterus was removed against her will at a government hospital where she had gone to deliver her last child now aged eight. "My uterus was removed in 2007. When I got pregnant and went for medical check-up, the doctor asked me why I was pregnant. I told him I want to have a third child. The doctor said, you people living with HIV at times annoy us because you understand your situation but you come to disturb us." Mayimuna narrates.
El Salvador Pension Reform Could Take Women into Account
- Inter Press Service
SAN SALVADOR, Feb 17 (IPS) - El Salvador is debating reforms of the country's privatised pension system, which could introduce changes so that it will no longer discriminate against women.
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