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

COLOMBIA:
Unraveling the “New” FARC Announcement
Analysis by Diana Cariboni
MONTEVIDEO – Colombian and international media outlets reported Thursday and Friday that the FARC guerrillas had “ruled out” the release of Colombian hostage Ingrid Betancourt in an article issued after a French emergency medical mission to save the gravely ill hostage got underway. The problem is that the FARC statement is actually more than two weeks old.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=41870

On the Verge of Death?
Ana Carrigan
LONDON – It is still uncertain whether a European humanitarian mission sent to Colombia by French President Nicolas Sarkozy to provide emergency medical aid to French-Colombian hostage Ingrid Betancourt will be received by the FARC guerrillas.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=41855

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Gaza Running on Near Empty
Mohammed Omer
GAZA CITY – Ayman Eid stands as motionless as his orange Hyundai taxi. Never mind taking a passenger somewhere, Ayman has no idea how he will ever get home.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=41874

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Embarrassed U.S. Starts to Disown Basra Operation
Analysis by Gareth Porter
WASHINGTON – As it became clear last week that the “Operation Knights Assault” in Basra was in serious trouble, the Bush administration began to claim in off-the-record statements to journalists that Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki had launched the operation without consulting Washington.
ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=41804

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EAST TIMOR: Horta’s Assailants Scot-Free Thanks to Politics
Analysis by Setyo Budi
DILI – If the renegade soldiers who attempted to assassinate East Timor President Jose Ramos-Horta on Feb. 11 remain scot-free, it has more to do with the complex politics of this fledgling country than a failure of the armed forces, domestic or international, that protect it.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=41847

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Towards a New and Improved Green Revolution
Stephen Leahy
JOHANNESBURG – As food prices soar and hundreds of millions go hungry, experts from around the world will this week present a new approach for ensuring food security, at the intergovernmental plenary for the International Assessment of Agricultural Science and Technology for Development (IAASTD).
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=41877

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SOUTH AFRICA: Making the Blackboard Jungle Less So
Stephanie Nieuwoudt
CAPE TOWN – Violence in South African schools has claimed the lives of a number of children in recent years, while many more have been hospitalised with injuries.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=41821

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MIDEAST: This ‘Bombshell’ Took a Year Falling
Analysis by Adam Morrow and Khaled Moussa al-Omrani
CAIRO – A recent article in Vanity Fair magazine “exposing” a U.S.-planned coup attempt against Palestinian resistance movement Hamas last year has ignited a storm of debate about Washington’s Middle East policies. Yet for more than nine months, details of the plot were reported in the independent Arabic press — and elsewhere — leading some observers to ask: where was the mainstream media?
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=41829

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US ELECTIONS: Media Wrong on Rev. Wright, Critics Say
William Fisher
NEW YORK – Amid the explosive controversy over remarks made in sermons by Sen. Barack Obama’s former pastor, critics are charging that the U.S. mainstream media has distorted his comments, failed to understand the African American church, and sought to punish the Democratic Party presidential hopeful through “guilt by association”.
ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=41833

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CAMBODIA: Property Boom Forces Evictions of Urban Poor
Andrew Nette
PHNOM PENH – Sitting in a wooden house in the urban poor community of Dei Krohome, Touch Ratha recounted a tale of intimidation, secrecy and the blurred line between police, government officials and the private company that she says has been trying to evict her and her neighbours.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=41856

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