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

RIGHTS: Gender Empowerment at U.N. Still Cloudy
By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS (IPS) – When the United Nations commemorated the 30th anniversary of a major international treaty on women's rights last week, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon boasted about the increasing number of women he has appointed to senior positions in the world body since he took office in January 2007.
ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=49798

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DEVELOPMENT: Tsunami Brings Sea Change in Coastal Lives
By Ranjit Devraj
NEW DELHI (IPS) – Tragic as it was, the Asian tsunami wrought a sea change in the lives of survivors in the sleepy coastal hamlets of southern Tamil Nadu state, where some 8,000 people are known to have died.
ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=49821

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AFRICA: Drying, Drying, Disappearing

By Paul Virgo
ROME (IPS) – Lake Chad was bigger than Israel less than 50 years ago. Today its surface area is less than a tenth of its earlier size, amid forecasts the lake could disappear altogether within 20 years.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=49820

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MIGRATION: Letting Go of the American Dream
By Valeria Fernández
PHOENIX, Arizona (IPS) – It is only a matter of days before Marcela Vázquez, an undocumented immigrant, leaves the southwestern U.S. state of Arizona for good. And before she does, she's putting as much as she can up for sale – including her three children's beds.
ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=49812

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SOUTH AMERICA:  New Map Outlines Guaraní Territory
By Natalia Ruiz Díaz
ASUNCIÓN (IPS) – Some 100,000 Guaraní people live in the area where Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay converge, according to a new map drawn of the indigenous group's ancestral territory, which also highlights the threats, such as expanding soy cultivation, to their natural surroundings.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=49790

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SOUTH SUDAN: A More Gender Representative Leadership
By Miriam Gathigah
JUBA (IPS) – As the general elections scheduled for April 2010 draw nearer in Africa?s largest country ravaged by a long drawn war, the scramble for political positions is rife as women struggle to make their presence felt.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=49809

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ENERGY-ICELAND: Osmotic, Tidal Power Show Promise
By Lowana Veal
REYKJAVIK (IPS) – Iceland already gets over 72 percent of its energy from renewable, hydroelectric and geothermal sources, but Icelanders are ambitious when it comes to energy and scientists are now looking at osmotic and tidal power to meet future energy needs.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=49802

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ZAMBIA: Let our Chiefs Govern
By Lewis Mwanangombe
LUSAKA (IPS) – The Litunga of Barotseland, King of the Lozi, has no judicial or legislative authority. No supervisory control over government projects, and worst of all he cannot stand for elected office. Yet successive Zambian presidents have deferred to him.
ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=49771

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COLOMBIA: Chicha, Fashionable Survivor
By Helda Martínez
BOGOTÁ (IPS) – Chicha, a traditional homemade brew produced all the way from Mexico to Chile since the days of the Inca, has largely been a rural drink over the centuries. But it is enjoying a new popularity in bars and restaurants in Bogotá and other Colombian cities, as a hip alternative to mass-produced beer.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=49767

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SRI LANKA: Five Years after Tsunami, Many Still without Shelter
By Amantha Perera
KALMUNAI, Sri Lanka (IPS) – “We have been here for almost five years. So many promises have been made, but very few have been kept,” complains Mohideen Nafia, 22, one of the survivors of the 2004 Asian tsunami still living in a temporary facility in the coastal town of Kalmunai, located 300 kilometres east of the capital, Colombo.
ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=49804

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