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: Constitution Under the Jackboot Yet Again
Analysis by Zofeen Ebrahim
KARACHI – Pakistan has seen several coups and military dictators in the 60 years of its existence, but President Gen. Pervez Musharraf will go down in history as the man who staged a coup against his own government.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=40106
Gagged at Home, Pakistanis Take to Cyberspace – By Abid Aslam
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=40035
Trouble in Pakistan – More IPS Coverage
www.ipsnews.net/new_focus/pakistan/index.asp
*****
BANGLADESH: Cyclone Leaves Millions Facing Starvation
Farid Ahmed
DHAKA – As a helicopter of Bangladesh Air Force hovered over Dublar Char, a remote island in the Bay of Bengal, hundreds of people starving for days gathered on an open space for some food and drinking water, but the helicopter failed to find any space to land on.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=40107
*****
CONGO: Extracting Honesty for an Extractive Resource
Arsène Séverin
BRAZZAVILLE – As 2007 draws to a close, citizens of Congo can look back on another year in which the challenge of introducing greater accountability into the Central African country’s opaque and corrupt oil sector loomed large.
www.ipsnews.net/africa/nota.asp?idnews=40091
*****
Iraqi MPs Challenge Coalition Mandate
Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS – The United Nations Security Council has been warned by Iraqi parliamentarians of a potentially “serious” constitutional and political crisis if it decides to renew the mandate of the U.S.-led multinational force beyond December 2007, without approval from lawmakers.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=40038
*****
BRAZIL: Awash With Oil – Good for Revenues, Bad for Climate Change?
Mario Osava
RIO DE JANEIRO – The discovery of a huge oilfield 250 kilometres off the southeastern coast of Brazil will not have an immediate effect on world crude markets, but it opens up future prospects of a new oil frontier in the South Atlantic which may deter the pursuit of clean energy sources, experts say.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=40086
*****
IRAQ: Corruption Adds to Baquba’s Problems
Ahmed Ali*
BAQUBA – Facing violence, unemployment and poverty, the capital city of Iraq’s volatile Diyala province now finds itself confronting also corruption.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=40070
*****
TRADE: EU Set to Milk East Africa With Subsidised Goods?
Analysis by Aileen Kwa
NAIROBI – ‘’Dairy farmers in Kenya are doing well now,’’ says Peter Wanyeki, as he flashes a big smile. ‘’Before, when we went home to the village, you could never take enough money with you. Everybody was poor. But now the situation is different. The dairy farmers are rich because they are getting a very good price for their milk.’’
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=40067
EPAs – Opportunities and Risks
www.ipsnews.net/new_focus/epas/index.asp
*****
VENEZUELA: Lightning in the Sky Fed by Underground Methane
Humberto Márquez – IPS/IFEJ
CONGO MIRADOR – A red, yellow and orange flash illuminates a slice of the sky and Lake Maracaibo in Venezuela. For a fraction of a second after, lightning of incandescent white move left to right and right to left between small clouds like dark silhouettes.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=40101
*****
GREECE: More Poverty Than Meets the Eye
Apostolis Fotiadis
ATHENS – A third of Greeks live close to the poverty line or under, a new survey has found. The poverty limit is drawn at an income of 470 euros a month per adult.
The survey conducted last month by Kapa Research, a surveys company, and The London School of Economics on behalf of the ministry of economy found that poverty has begun to threaten social cohesion.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=40033
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/
Inter Press Service News Agency (IPS), the world’s leading provider of information on global issues, is backed by a network of journalists in more than 100 countries. Its clients include more than 3,000 media organisations and tens of thousands of civil society groups, academics, and other users.
IPS focuses its news coverage on the events and global processes affecting the economic, social and political development of peoples and nations.
Visit Inter Press Service at www.ipsnews.net