Here are some of the most-read stories of the past week — and stories you shouldn’t go without reading:
KENYA: From Suspension of Talks to Fragile Success
Kwamboka Oyaro
NAIROBI – The signing of a power-sharing agreement to end the political crisis in Kenya has elicited a variety of reactions.
“…The two leaders were actually the impediment to the talks,” said one political analyst in reference to head of state Mwai Kibaki and opposition leader Raila Odinga, who have been locked in a dispute over the Dec. 27 presidential polls. Odinga claims that Kabaki rigged the vote to earn a second term in office, while international observers have expressed concern about the conduct of both sides during the ballot.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=41402
Kenya’s Elections and Aftermath – More IPS News
www.ipsnews.net/new_focus/kenya/index.asp
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PAKISTAN: Suicide Bombers – Chickens Coming Home to Roost
Analysis by Amir Mir
ISLAMABAD – The assassination on Monday of the surgeon-general of Pakistan’s armed forces in the garrison town of Rawalpindi has brought home the enormity of the threat posed by suicide bombers — once nurtured by the establishment to fight the enemies of Islam in Afghanistan and Kashmir.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=41404
Trouble in Pakistan – IPS Special Coverage
www.ipsnews.net/new_focus/pakistan/index.asp
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BRAZIL: Indigenous Groups Defend Constitutional Right to Land
Mario Osava
MIRANDA and ANTONIO JOAO – Thousands of indigenous people in the west-central Brazilian state of Mato Grosso do Sul are living in precarious camps or small overcrowded reservations, lacking the land they need to grow the food needed to overcome high levels of malnutrition.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=41422
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Israel Kills Some More Children
Mohammed Omer
GAZA CITY – Tamer was nine, and no child soldier. He did not live in the area from where home-made rockets are launched into Israeli territory. The day he was killed, he was at least two km from the place Israeli troops had entered Gaza, and met with return fire by Palestinian resistance.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=41424
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A Humanitarian Disaster Unfolds in Eastern DRC
Michael Deibert
KIBUMBA – In a mist-shrouded valley between the Mount Nyiragongo volcano and a pair of its dormant cousins looming in Rwanda to the east, nearly 3,000 souls wait in limbo, having fled a conflict that has succeeded in making this lush corner in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo nothing less than hell on earth for its people.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=41426
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EAST TIMOR: ‘Joint Police-Military Action On Rebels a Mistake’
Analysis by Setyo Budi
DILI – A joint police and military operation mounted against renegade soldiers, following the Feb. 11 shooting of President Jose Ramos-Horta, has been condemned as a ‘mistake’ and one that could compound the serious dissensions that plague the two forces.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=41410
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Household Chemicals Wreaking Havoc in Fish
Adrianne Appel
BOSTON – When people take their daily doses of birth control pills, antidepressants and antibiotics, fish are being dosed too.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=41364
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CUBA: How Far Will the Changes Go?
Dalia Acosta
HAVANA – After months of uncertainty and speculation centred on former President Fidel Castro, Cuba’s obsessive spotlight has shifted to the changes needed in the country, and questions about how far the new government of President Raúl Castro will be willing to go.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=41380
Cuban Revolution: Chapter 2? — More IPS Coverage
www.ipsnews.net/new_focus/cuba/index.asp
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LEBANON: No One Helps the Fisherman
Rebecca Murray
TYRE – On the afternoon of his grandfather’s funeral, Ismael waded out to the sea rocks near the old Tyre lighthouse and looked out over the choppy water. He greeted his friends passing by in a fluka --- a small, handcrafted wooden fishing vessel — and lit the dynamite fuse in his hand.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=41392
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‘Black Art’ Draws New Collectors, Better Prices
Lance Steagall
NEW YORK – Landscapes are the images that come to mind in the work of artist Richard Mayhew. The New York-born expressionist credits that to his part African American, part Native American roots.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=41353
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MALAWI: Tea Growers Devising Plans to Overcome Low Prices
Pilirani Semu-Banda
LILONGWE – Low prices continue to haunt Malawian tea on the auction floors, a bitter irony for some producers as the country is regarded as the pioneer of tea-growing in Africa.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=41369
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