News headlines in September 2012, page 2

ARUSHA, Tanzania, Sep 28 (IPS) - Investment in rural infrastructure and support for Africa's millions of small-scale farmers have increased in the past decade. But as these farmers begin to see increased yields, the question of better access to markets comes to the fore.

KAMPALA?, Sep 28 (IPS) - Uganda, Africa's biggest coffee exporter, is racing against time to boost its production of the crop by 60,000 tonnes, or one million 60-kilogramme bags, within the next three years. But some industry players believe that the feat is unattainable.

BERLIN, Sep 28 (IPS) - For many years, the European Union (EU) and its individual member states counted among the strongest advocates for free trade, arguing that it would boost economic growth and welfare both at home and abroad.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, India, Sep 28 (IPS) - After more than a century of fighting sea erosion by massively dumping granite boulders along the beaches of southern  Kerala state, environmentalists and administrators are beginning to see that this has been a costly and ineffective solution.   

WASHINGTON, Sep 28 (IPS) - The international community is reacting triumphantly following an agreement on Thursday between Sudan and South Sudan to resume oil production and trade, despite the accord’s failure to address two of the situation’s most intractable issues, on border demarcation and control over lucrative oil-producing regions.

HAVANA, Sep 27 (IPS) - It's hard to imagine her in guerrilla fatigues, carrying a 25-kg backpack and firing shots to repel an enemy attack, or diving for cover from aerial bombardment. She is known as Sandra Ramírez, and she has left the field of battle in Colombia to come to the Cuban capital to talk peace.

UNITED NATIONS, Sep 27 (IPS) - The United States and a small group of other nuclear-armed nations are apparently coming under increasing pressure to accept the international community’s resolve to legally ban nuclear testing without delay.

WASHINGTON, Sep 27 (IPS) - New research from Oxfam, an international aid agency, finds that some of the largest multinational oil and mining companies are increasingly incorporating principles of community consent into their day-to-day operations.

ATLANTA, Georgia, Sep 27 (IPS) - In the wake of the epidemic of home foreclosures, banking scandals and resulting massive financial regulation overhaul two years ago known as the Dodd-Frank legislation, the U.S. government created a new federal agency to protect consumers from being taken advantage of by banks and other institutions.

GENEVA, Sep 27 (IPS) - Multilateralism is at a crossroads. This is a crucial matter for environmental and sustainability issues, as we have seen in the Rio+20 Summit, and for trade and other economic matters. The G20 Summit in Los Cabos, Mexico, focused precisely on improving our collective response to the current economic turbulence, which is at the heart of developments in the European Union (EU) as well.