The Week with IPS
Here are some of the most-read stories of the past week — and stories you shouldn’t go without reading:
BURMA
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Fear Over the Country
Moe Yu May and Marwaan Macan-Markar
RANGOON – Nights are no more the same for the 45-year-old Buddhist monk who lives in a monastery in the Myay Ni Gone area, close to the heart of this dilapidated city. Nor is sleep.
“I live in fear after dark. I cannot sleep because of worry that the soldiers will raid us again, at night,” he said in quiet tones on a recent morning walking down a barely crowded street in Burma’s commerical capital. As he spoke, he looked around, gauging people nearby.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=39524
Criticism of Total Operations Grows
Michael Deibert
PARIS – The Yadana natural gas pipeline runs from gas fields in the warm waters of the Andaman Sea through a sliver of southern Burma and into Thailand. It also runs through the heart of the debate on corporate responsibility as to how foreign businesses should operate in a country ruled by a military dictatorship accused of widespread human rights abuses and violent suppression of dissent within its borders.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=39518
ASEAN Backs Neither U.S. Nor China over Burma
Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS – The 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations, of which Burma (Myanmar) is a member, is refusing to see eye-to-eye either with the United States or China on how the international community should deal with the ongoing crisis in the politically-troubled military-run country.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=39555
Burma Marches On – More IPS Special Coverage
www.ipsnews.net/new_focus/burma/index.asp
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BRAZIL: Community Action Beats Back Adversity
Mario Osava
PINTADAS – When the town of Pintadas dared elect a mayor from the leftist Workers Party (PT) in 1996, the retaliation was immediate: the conservative government of the state of Bahia closed the only bank in this small, impoverished town in northeastern Brazil.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=39545
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Exports Should Be Priority for African States
Sarah McGregor
DAR ES SALAAM – The “Mobilising Aid For Trade: Focussing on Africa” high level conference ended this week with admonitions from the World Trade Organisation.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=39525
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Koreas in Win-Win Deal
Analysis by Antoaneta Bezlova
BEIJING – Surpassing all expectations historic talks between the leaders of North and South Korea in Pyongyang have produced a joint declaration that seeks a formal end to the 1950-53 Korean war and bridge distrust, a vestige of the Cold War years.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=39537
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CLIMATE CHANGE: Entire Landscapes on the Move
Stephen Leahy
TORONTO – The hot breath of global warming has now touched some of the coldest northern regions of world, turning the frozen landscape into mush as temperatures soar 15 degrees C. above normal.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=39531
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GUATEMALA: Concern Over Bill that Would Restrict Definition of ?Family?
Inés Benítez
GUATEMALA CITY – Human rights groups and activists for the rights of sexual minorities have expressed alarm at a draft law that the Guatemalan Congress is preparing to pass, which would eliminate single parents as well as same-sex couples from the official definition of “family.”
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=39528
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AFRICA: COMESA States Urged to Drop Non-Tariff Barriers
Pilirani Semu-Banda
LILONGWE – Despite the reduction in trade tariffs within the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), member states are still grappling with non-tariff barriers which restrict the flow of exports and imports. This is regarded as putting brakes on the improvement of trade volumes in the region.
www.ipsnews.net/africa/nota.asp?idnews=39542
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LATIN AMERICA: The Rights of Native People Living in Nature Reserves
Marcela Valente
BARILOCHE – Far from being uninhabited places where nature holds sway, the vast majority of Latin America’s protected areas are places where people live, so a balance has to be found between conservation goals and the need to reduce poverty.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=39546
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PAKISTAN: Pay-Toilets? When the Walls Are Free?
Zofeen Ebrahim
KARACHI – At a pay-and-use toilet at Karachi’s Civil Hospital, Rustom Ali asserts: “I’m an employee here so why should I pay?” Hari Ram, the 60-year-old caretaker, is too meek to argue and lets Ali in. “Very few people pay,” Ram mutters.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=39514
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