Here are some of the most-read stories of the past week — and stories you shouldn’t go without reading:
LEBANON: For Iraqis, Treatment for Trauma Is Luxury
Rebecca Murray
BEIRUT – The young woman was walking with her husband along a Baghdad street when she was abducted, held captive and raped repeatedly by five militia men for several days.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=40841
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Muslim American Voters Left Out in the Cold
William Fisher
NEW YORK – In an electoral campaign system tactically dominated by “niche politics”, major candidates for their party’s presidential nominations are running as fast as they can from one potentially influential constituency.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=40825
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COLOMBIA: Interference and Belligerence
Constanza Vieira
BOGOTA – The Colombian government “is not committed to peace, but obsessed with war,” the Venezuelan Foreign Ministry said in a communiqué.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=40847
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AFRICA: Doha Round Stuck on Issues of Development (Again)
Analysis by Aileen Kwa
GENEVA – African negotiators are concerned that their development concerns have been sidelined in the much vaunted Doha Development Round of negotiations at the World Trade Organisation. Whether the round, which has missed previous deadlines, will be concluded this year or not depends on several issues.
ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=40857
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SRI LANKA: “Norwegian Truce Provided Window of Prosperity”
Feizal Samath
COLOMBO – While the Norway-brokered ceasefire between the Sri Lankan government and Tamil separatist militants finally failed, last week, it did provide a six-year window of prosperity to this island nation torn by a festering ethnic conflict.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=40855
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Q&A: “U.S. Missile System Could Re-Start Cold War, or Worse”
Interview with Philip Coyle, Centre for Defence Information
PRAGUE – The U.S. project to enlarge its missile defence system to Eastern Europe is a wasteful enterprise that will make the world unstable, says Philip Coyle, senior advisor to the independent Centre for Defence Information in Washington, and expert on worldwide military research, defence and security policy.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=40835
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THAILAND: Court Clears Path For Pro-Thaksin Gov’t
Marwaan Macan-Markar
BANGKOK – Thailand came closer to having its first civilian government since the September 2006 coup on Friday after the supreme court threw out a case against the People Power Party (PPP), which won the most number of seats in the Dec. 23 general elections.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=40838
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KENYA: Businesses Suffering in Election’s Wake
Kwamboka Oyaro
KISII – Joseph Ombui, standing in his barely stocked shop, looks anxiously at his customers every time he responds, “Out of stock. Please try next week.”
ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=40829
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U.S. War on Terror Moves East
Jim Lobe
WASHINGTON – The Pentagon’s announcement here Tuesday that it is dispatching some 3,200 marines to Afghanistan underlines both Washington’s mounting concern about the strength of the Taliban insurgency and the growing sense here that the central front in its nearly six-and-a-half-year-old “war on terror” has moved back to its South Asian roots.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=40804
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CUBA: Fewer Political Prisoners, More Arbitrary Arrests, Say Dissidents
Dalia Acosta
HAVANA – The number of political prisoners in Cuba fell last year, but arbitrary detentions increased, according to a report released Wednesday, by the Cuban Commission for Human Rights and National Reconciliation.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=40848
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