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

SPECIAL COVERAGE: IPS and TerraViva from Copenhagen

Will the climate change summit taking place Dec. 7-18 in Copenhagen make deals that are fair, ambitious and binding? IPS news agency has mobilised a team of 15 journalists, drawn largely from Africa, Asia and Latin America, to go to Copenhagen and find out. IPS’ independent TerraViva newspaper will produce the latest news on the conference every day in English, Spanish and French, complete with photos, videos and other multimedia content.
www.ips.org/TV/copenhagen/

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CLIMATE CHANGE: Cattle, the Ignored Predator
By Mario Osava – IPS/TerraViva*
RIO DE JANEIRO (IPS) – Because of its effect on the environment, cattle must be given the same priority in global agendas as nuclear weapons, wars and, in particular, climate change, says Brazilian activist João Meirelles Filho, author of two books on Amazon deforestation.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=49643

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RIGHTS-UGANDA: Anti-homosexuality Bill Means ‘Targeted Killings’
By Wambi Michael
KAMPALA (IPS) – Uganda will be going back to the days of the Idi Amin regime if it passes a Bill which will arrest or kill people for being gay or lesbian and for repeatedly engaging in homosexual sex, say rights activists.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=49617

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CLIMATE CHANGE: Small Farmers Can Cool the World
By Stephen Leahy*
COPENHAGEN (IPS/TerraViva) – Industrial agriculture may emit nearly half of climate-heating greenhouse gases, but that reality has gone unrecognised by negotiators at the climate treaty talks here, say farmers with La Via Campesina, an international movement of hundreds of millions of small-scale peasant farmers.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=49655

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CAMBODIA: Pepper Farmers Get Ready for their Champagne Moment
By Robert Carmichael
PHNOM PENH (IPS) -Under a shady trellis of rice sacks in the province of Kampot in southernCambodia, 42-year-old Nuon Yan tends his crop of pepper vines
ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=49582

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US: Soldiers Forced to Go AWOL for PTSD Care
By Dahr Jamail
MARFA, Texas (IPS) – With a military health care system over-stretched by two ongoing wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, more soldiers are deciding to go absent without leave (AWOL) in order to find treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=49646

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US: Reconsidering War on Drugs
By Matthew Berger
WASHINGTON (IPS) – As the war on drugs moves closer to home and a new administration presents new ideas, policymakers in Washington are taking notice of 30 years’ worth of ineffectual drug policy and beginning to think about different ways of addressing the northward flow of narcotics.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=49657

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Q&A: Three Decades of Progress for Women’s Treaty, But Many Challenges Ahead
Fabiana Frayssinet interviews SILVIA PIMENTEL, CEDAW Committee member
RIO DE JANEIRO (IPS) – The United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), which turns 30 on Dec. 18, has brought greater global awareness of women?s rights and been instrumental in the huge strides made towards ending discrimination and inequality in the world.
ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=49589

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RIGHTS-ZIMBABWE: Mugabe Orchestrated Rape – AIDS-Free World report
By Sholain Govender-Bateman
JOHANNESBURG (IPS) – “When the tenth man finished raping me they said they were going to rape my daughter. I cried out but I could not even stand up at this time…they raped my daughter (while) I was there and I couldn?t do anything to stop them. My daughter was five years old…”
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=49624

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MALAYSIA: Lack of Regulation Blamed for HIV Upsurge amongWomen
By Baradan Kuppusamy
KUALA LUMPUR (IPS) – Melinda Teoh, 42, had a life that couldeasily be the envy of many except that it took an unexpected turn just when shethought she had it all.
ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=49651

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FRANCE: Sarkozy – Unlikely Champion of Environmental Action
Analysis by A. D. McKenzie
PARIS (IPS) – For a centre-right politician, best known for his law-and-order stance and tough immigration policies, French President Nicolas Sarkozy would seem an unlikely champion of environmental issues
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=49621

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DEVELOPMENT: Afro-Uruguayan Women Find Their Own Way Home
By Inés Acosta
MONTEVIDEO (IPS) – Contrary to popular belief in Uruguay, the capital city?s black population is no longer concentrated in neighbourhoods like Barrio Sur, Palermo and Cordón, which were historically home to the majority of African descendents and remain heavily steeped in Afro-Uruguayan culture.
ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=49576

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EARTH ALERT: TOO LITTLE, TOO LATE FOR COPENHAGEN?

Read about the forces behind climate change – but also about growing citizen awareness and new climate policies towards sustainable development.

The 15th Conference of Parties to the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC) is set to take place in Copenhagen from Dec. 7 to 18. World leaders are expected to try to agree on a successor to the Kyoto Protocol. IPS brings you the latest news from the ‘frontline’ of environment.
www.ipsnews.net/climate_change/index.asp
Newsletter ipsnews.net/_newsletter/environment.asp

Read more global news at: www.ipsnews.net/

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