Analysis by Amantha Perera

COLOMBO, Jun 14 2013 (IPS) - For the first time since Sri Lanka’s 30-year-long civil conflict drew to a bloody finish in May 2009, casting an eerie hush over the Northern Province that had grown accustomed to the sounds of war, there is a buzz in the air generated by the prospect of provincial elections that hold the promise of radical change.

Though it is yet to be announced formally, political circles in the capital, Colombo, are fixed on the prospect of an election in September.

By Naimul Haq

CHAPAINAWABGANJ, Bangladesh, Jun 16 2013 (IPS) - “I would never have believed it possible to get a bumper rice harvest during the drought season,” 43-year-old Mohammad Shajahan Ali, a farmer hailing from the village of Magtapur in Bangladesh’s northern Chapainawabganj district, told IPS.

CASTRIES, St. Lucia, Jun 15 2013 (IPS) - The Caribbean has the unenviable reputation as one of the most disaster-prone regions in the world, a situation exacerbated by climate change and vulnerability that experts warn could have significant economic consequences if unaddressed.

As a result, a comprehensive strategy to build Caribbean resilience ought to include adaptation to the effects of climate change, Warren Smith, president of the Barbados-based Caribbean Development Bank (CDB), the region’s premier lending institution, has suggested.

By Amy Fallon

KAMPALA
, Jun 13 2013 (IPS) - Children around the world may complain about attending school and doing their homework, but not 14-year-old Raya*. For two years she was forced by her illiterate parents to spend every day, rain or shine, selling sugar cane from the family garden to customers on the streets of Entebbe, about 35 km outside the Ugandan capital, Kampala.

By Desmond Brown

ST. JOHN'S, Antigua, Jun 12 2013 (IPS) - With their islands devoid of rivers or streams, farmers in Antigua and Barbuda have been building dams and ponds for centuries, harvesting rainwater to irrigate their crops and provide drinking water for their livestock.

But now with the advent of climate change, they are facing major challenges. Stronger and more frequent storms regularly destroy trees planted around catchment areas as watershed as well as grass planted in and around these areas to slow evaporation.

By Thalif Deen

IPS U.N. Bureau Chief Thalif Deen interviews DR. PALITHA KOHONA, co-chair of the Working Group on Conservation of Marine Resources Beyond National Jurisdiction

UNITED NATIONS, Jun 11 2013 (IPS) - The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) is convinced there is sufficient global capacity to produce enough food to adequately feed the world’s seven billion people.

But despite progress made over the last two decades, says FAO, some 870 million people still suffer from chronic hunger.

By Thalif Deen

UNITED NATIONS, Jun 6 2013 (IPS) - When the United Nations launched its Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) back in 2001, two of its primary objectives were to halve extreme poverty and hunger by 2015 and promote gender empowerment worldwide.

By Toye Olori

LAGOS, Nigeria, Jun 7 2013 (IPS) - Residents in the three Nigerian states where a state of emergency has been declared are living in fear as food prices soar and government soldiers conduct door to door campaigns to root out terrorists.

The Joint Military Task Force has been deployed to the three northern states of Borno, Yobe and Adamawa, where on May 14 President Goodluck Jonathan declared a state of emergency.

SRINAGAR, India, Jun 5 2013 (IPS) - Leaning on her daughter’s arm in the post-operative ward of a hospital in Srinagar, capital of the northern Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir, Raja Begam views the anti-infection pill she is being offered with a large dose of suspicion.

“How can I be sure it will relieve my suffering?” the 49-year-old asked. Begam has just had her gall bladder removed and is giving her attendants a tough time, insisting, “Everyone says we are being fed fake drugs in Kashmir.”