ARGENTINA: Three-Quarters of "Breadbasket" Is Drylands
How has Argentina managed to maintain its image as one of the world's breadbaskets when a full three-fourths of its territory consists of drylands? This was one of the questions raised by the...
View ArticleAfghan Refugees Hounded in Pakistan
The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government recently launched a harsh crackdown on illegal Afghan immigrants who have been pouring across the border into Pakistan, going so far as to request federal government...
View ArticleJAPAN: Trust Deficit - Worst Fallout of Fukushima
Kazuya Tarukawa, 36, left a secure job in the Japanese capital to tend to his family's organic farm located 100 km away from the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear reactor.
View ArticleMEXICO: Keeping Traces of Antibiotics Out of Food
Orange juice and beef form part of the diet of many people in Mexico and other countries of the Americas. But the traces of antibiotics and fungicides they can contain pose risks to human health, and...
View ArticleHonduran Government Seeks to Minimise Cost of Prison Fire
The government of Honduras hopes to reach friendly settlements with the families of inmates killed in the Comayagua prison fire, to avoid international lawsuits.
View ArticleEL SALVADOR: Military Commission to Investigate Army Abuses
"It's awful to see people who are criminals treated as heroes," said Dorila Márquez, one of the survivors of the El Mozote massacre committed by Salvadoran army troops in December 1981.
View ArticleWomen, Victims of War, Have No Seat at Negotiating Table
When the U.N. Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) held its inaugural meeting in London back in 1946, the U.S. delegate, Eleanor Roosevelt, read an open letter to "the women of the world" calling...
View ArticleAzerbaijan and Israel: The Enemy of My Enemy Is My Friend
As the showdown over Iranian nuclear ambitions intensifies, political analysts in Azerbaijan are urging the government to deepen the country's ties with Israeli and Western security structures.
View ArticleHaiti's University Languishes in Ruins - Part 1
Two years after the earthquake, and despite the proposals written, the consortiums organised and the foreign delegations entertained, the University of the State of Haiti (Université d'Etat d'Haïti or...
View ArticleHaiti's University Languishes in Ruins - Part 2
When the Interim Haiti Reconstruction Commission failed to approve, or even respond to, a proposal by the University of the State of Haiti (UEH) for a unified campus to replace the nine destroyed or...
View ArticleDespite War Drums, Experts Insist Iran Nuclear Deal Possible
Amid the persistent beating of war drums, an influential international conflict prevention group is insisting that a deal between Western countries and Iran on Tehran's controversial nuclear programme...
View ArticleQ&A: 'Malaysians Must Vote Out Corruption, Racism'
Malaysia's charismatic opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim is tapping the spirit of the Arab Spring to end the 55-year unbroken rule of the United Malay National Organsiation (UMNO) and its allies in the...
View ArticleCOTE D'IVOIRE: Illicit Timber Trade Exposes the North to Drought
Environmental groups in Côte d'Ivoire say the illegal logging and sale of wood from the African gum tree is exposing the north of the country to the encroaching desert. The NGOs are calling on the...
View ArticleBRAZIL: A Curse on Hydropower Projects in the Amazon?
"Perhaps it's the curse of Rondônia," joked Ari Ott, referring to teething troubles with the first turbine of the Santo Antônio hydroelectric plant which was intended to kick off a new cycle of huge...
View ArticleWanted: Climate-Smart Agriculture
As the links between food security and climate change become increasingly inextricable, the necessity for sustainable agriculture is now a universal concern.
View ArticlePrivatisation Derailed Argentina's Rail System
Increasingly frequent and tragic railway accidents in Argentina, like this week's crash, show that the rail system, run by private companies that receive hundreds of millions of dollars in subsidies...
View ArticleSPAIN: Demonstrators Protest Bank Bailouts and Spending Cuts
Demonstrators in nearly two dozen cities in Spain raised their voices Friday to protest against the use of public funds to bail out banks while the budgets for basic services like education and health...
View ArticleRural Women in Latin America Face Myriad Hurdles
"Sometimes I think of giving it all up," Aura Canache, a small farmer in Venezuela, told IPS. "My neighbours get loans and aid, but I never have. The farm assistance plans are for men, although there...
View ArticleMisrata Rebuilds, Slowly
This week more than half the residents eligible to vote in Libya's embattled coastal city of Misrata cast their ballots for local council representatives in their first democratic election in decades.
View ArticleNGOs Urge "Solution from Within" for Somalia
While the international community discusses Somalia's future in London and Brussels, European and Somali non-governmental organisations are calling for a radical shift from a military to a...
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