The Week with IPS

Here are some of the most-read stories of the past week — and stories you shouldn’t go without reading:

PAKISTAN: ‘Judicial Activism’ Triggered Emergency
Analysis by Beena Sarwar
KARACHI – By taking a stand on crucial constitutional issues, implicit in cases before it, the Pakistan Supreme Court may have raised the political temperature to a point where, in order to remain in power, President Gen. Pervez Musharraf felt compelled to declare emergency Saturday.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=39917

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Q&A: ‘We Need Partners, Not Masters’
Interview with Evo Morales, President of Bolivia
ROME – Bolivian President Evo Morales visited Italy this week to receive a special award for his government’s commitment to social and health issues. He has made these issues a “political priority.”
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=39915

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IRAQ: Where Better Security Brings No Reassurance
Ahmed Ali*
BAQUBA – The much touted “surge” of U.S. troops in Baquba has caused more problems than it has solved, residents say. This has long been a volatile city plagued by rampant violence and administrative chaos.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=39897

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AFRICA: HIV and TB – An Ever Deadlier Combination
Miriam Mannak
CAPE TOWN – The prevalence of tuberculosis (TB) amongst people living with HIV in sub-Saharan Africa has reached crisis levels and will escalate further if decisive steps are not taken, says a new report by the Forum for Collaborative HIV Research — ‘HIV-TB Co-Infection: Meeting the Challenge’.
ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=39904

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Pawns of Colombia’s War – The Hostage Crisis
Analysis by Ana Carrigan
LONDON – “Mr. President, we who are going to die send you our greetings.” The Sept. 26, 2006 message, addressed to Colombian President Álvaro Uribe, came from a hostage held by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), along with eleven other provincial legislators, since April 2002.
ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=39902

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Death Penalty Threatens to Split World Body
Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS – The 192-member U.N. General Assembly is expected to vote, perhaps by early or mid-November, on one of the most divisive political issues before the world body: a moratorium on the death penalty.
ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=39875

More IPS News about the Global Death Penalty Debate
www.ipsnews.net/new_focus/deathpenalty/index.asp

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Pro-Taliban Militants Grip Swat Valley, Defy Army
Ashfaq Yusufzai
PESHAWAR – Violence has escalated this week in Swat, a high valley in the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) bordering Afghanistan, where a tenuous ceasefire was broken by brazen attacks on government targets by pro-Taliban militants.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=39916

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NICARAGUA: At-Risk Pregnancy Means Death or Prison
José Adán Silva
MANAGUA – Nearly 90 women have died in Nicaragua as a direct or indirect result of the repeal, one year ago, of the legislation permitting abortion in cases of risk to the mother’s health, according to women’s and human rights groups.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=39870

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KENYA: Court Bid to Stop EPA ‘’Human Rights Violations’’
Rosalia Omungo
NAIROBI – An unexpected challenge has been directed at the economic partnership agreement (EPA) being negotiated between the European Union and the east and southern African group. Two lobby groups have filed a law suit in Kenya to halt the signing of the EPA, citing human rights violations.
ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=39913

EPAs – Opportunities and Risks
www.ipsnews.net/new_focus/epas/index.asp

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Toxins Threaten to Uproot Entire U.S. Town
Mark Weisenmiller
TAMPA – The quiet village of Tallevast in Florida’s Manatee County traces its roots back to the 1890s, when a community of shacks was built there for African-American labourers who worked tapping sap from the local pine forests to make turpentine and grew sugarcane, celery and strawberries in the fields.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=39889

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COLOMBIA: A Painful Pilgrimage
Diana Cariboni and Constanza Vieira*
BELLAVISTA – “Father Antún! Father Antún is back!” were the happy, surprised shouts heard by the IPS news team accompanying Catholic priest Antún Ramos as he returned to his former parish in the village of Bellavista in northwestern Colombia.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=39853

LobeLog.com
IPS Washington bureau chief Jim Lobe’s take on U.S. foreign policy and the story behind the story. www.ips.org/blog/jimlobe/

And much more global news at: www.ipsnews.net/

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