News headlines in September 2012

GAZA CITY, Sep 30 (IPS) - “The overwhelming majority of people we work with tell us, 'We don't want the aid, we want to have an opportunity to work and earn money’. Especially people who had a decent job but lost it in the last many years: before asking for any aid, they ask for a job.”

TOKYO, Sep 29 (IPS) - While the 40^th anniversary of the normalisation of Japan-China relations passed under a dark shadow of rising tensions and bitter territorial disputes in East Asia, a strand of citizen-based diplomacy at the grassroots level is emerging in Japan as a path towards regional reconciliation.

MONTEREY, California, Sep 29 (IPS) - Humanity's ability to feed itself is in serious doubt as climate change takes hold on land in the form of droughts and extreme weather, as well as on the world's oceans.

GAZA CITY, Sep 29 (IPS) - “From the coast to eight miles out, the sea is like a desert: it's sandy and there are no fish.” Mohammed Al-Bakri traces a thick line on the wall map before him, following the lines of Gaza's eastern and northern borders, continuing south from three miles off the coast.

MANILA, Sep 29 (IPS) - A newly enacted cybercrime law in the Philippines has raised fears that not only online media but also ordinary netizens could be persecuted for exercising their freedom of expression.

MADRID, Sep 29 (IPS) - One of every three euros that the Spanish government plans to spend in 2013 will go to servicing the public debt.

WASHINGTON, Sep 29 (IPS) - On Friday, 62 civil-society organisations charged the U.S. State Department with spreading “misinformation” regarding the feasibility of levying a small tax on stock sales and other financial transactions, revenues from which could be used for national and international public goods.

RIO DE JANEIRO, Sep 28 (IPS) - More intense rainfall, rising temperatures and climate-driven migration of human and animal populations due to repeated drought all affect the spread of tropical diseases. These changes, already the focus of study by climatologists, are now also a challenge increasingly taken up by health experts and officials.

UNITED NATIONS, Sep 28 (IPS) - With the global population on track to reach a staggering nine billion people by 2050, according to U.N. figures, a stronger action plan is needed to address the challenges of ending poverty, ensuring a well-functioning health system and access to education, as well as guaranteeing social inclusion for all.

Sep 28 (IPS) - "In the garrison they had rooms where they would rape us; sometimes there were three, four or five soldiers,” Rosa Pérez*, one of the women used by the Guatemalan army as a sex slave during this country’s civil war, testified in court.