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

POLITICS: Five Days That Changed Pakistan
Analysis by Beena Sarwar
KARACHI (IPS) – A late night meeting between Pakistan?s army chief, President and Prime Minister led to the dramatic announcement in the wee hours of Monday morning that Iftikhar Mohammed Choudhry would be restored as Chief Justice.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=46119

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POLITICS-US: Freeman Affair Puts Israel Lobby in Spotlight
By Daniel Luban and Jim Lobe*
WASHINGTON (IPS) – Although the successful campaign to keep Amb. Charles “Chas” Freeman out of a top intelligence post marked a surface victory for the pro-Israel hardliners who opposed him, the long-term political implications of the Freeman affair appear far more ambiguous.
ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=46103

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PERU: "My Father Was Killed for Reporting on Rights Abuses"
By Angel Paez
LIMA (IPS) – “I became a journalist to find out how they killed my father, to discover where his body is, and to take those responsible for his death to court,” Boris Ayala told IPS. “I am not going to rest until I find out the whole truth.”
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=46081

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MIDEAST: Border Areas Bombed Again
By Adam Morrow and Khaled Moussa Al-Omrani
CAIRO (IPS) – Almost two months after the war on the Gaza Strip, the border area between the battered coastal enclave and Egypt continues to come under frequent Israeli aerial bombardment. Israeli officials say the strikes target cross-border tunnels used to smuggle weapons to Palestinian resistance factions.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=46088

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POLITICS-CHINA: Row Over Tibet Escalates
By Antoaneta Bezlova
BEIJING (IPS) – China has sealed off Tibet with troops and demanded that the international community recognise the legitimacy of Beijing’s historical claims over the Himalayan plateau, escalating a row over its policies there.
ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=46083

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Q&A: Aid Effectiveness Undermined by EU and U.S. Trade Policy
Julio Godoy interviews German development policy expert KLAUS SCHILDER
BERLIN (IPS) – Criticism against international development aid has been growing for several months, moving from down-right disapproval, shared by leftist and rightist commentators, experts and politicians in industrialised and poor countries, to partial reproaches for the fragmentation and lack of coherence in aid.
ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=46062

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CORRUPTION-US: Homeowner Rip-Offs Spark Scores of Lawsuits
By Adrianne Appel
BOSTON (IPS) – Many of the biggest mortgage lenders in the U.S. have engaged in widespread, systematic schemes that ripped off hundreds of thousands of families seeking to buy a home, refinance or foreclose, according to lawsuits filed on behalf of consumers.
ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=46071

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MIDEAST: Home Demolitions Threaten Peace Talks
By Mel Frykberg
RAMALLAH (IPS) – Eight months pregnant Shireen Abu Sbeh, 20, mother of a two-year-old, lives with eight other people in a two-bedroom apartment that is on a list of Palestinian homes in East Jerusalem to be demolished by the Israeli authorities.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=46046

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EL SALVADOR: Guerrilla Ecotourism
By Raul Gutierrez
LA MONTANONA, El Salvador (IPS) – La Montanona, a forested mountain in northern El Salvador that reaches 1,800 metres above sea level, was a stronghold of the FMLN guerrillas during the country's armed conflict. Today, its forests and stories of bombings and rebel hideouts have begun to draw ecotourism.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=46054

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POLITICS-PAKISTAN: Long March – A Long View
Analysis by Beena Sarwar
KARACHI (IPS) – Barely a year after being elected, the Pakistan government faces a political storm involving a street agitation spearheaded by lawyers and opposition political parties allied with religious parties.
ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=46061

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LIBERIA: Even the Devil is Subject to the Law
By Rebecca Murray
Monrovia and Harper, LIBERIA (IPS) – Tiny 14-year-old Precious sits on her orphanage bed in the southern port town of Harper, accused of witchcraft six months ago and exiled from her family and nearby community.
ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=46042

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