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Great reading!
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The 'other' world news - IPS News Headlines (also on the home page)
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DEVELOPMENT-KENYA: Fears Over New Land Deal
NAIROBI, Jul 4 (IPS) - Concern is mounting in Kenya that the government
has leased a big slice of agricultural land to the Qatari foreign
investors to produce food for export.
PERU: Petroleum Sullies the Amazon
BAGUA, Peru, Jul 3 (IPS/IFEJ) - "Now the fish are going to disappear," said
Luis Umpunchi, an Awajún Indian, one of about 20 people gathered
around a broken oil pipeline in the Jayais community, in the
northern Peruvian province of Amazonas.
AGRICULTURE: Biotechnology: Africa Must Not Be Left Behind
KAMPALA, Jul 3 (IPS) - Africa must embrace agricultural biotechnology or
risk being excluded from a major technological revolution that
has had increased food production in the Europe, North America
and Asia.
EUROPE: Croatia on Uncertain Course for EU Membership
BRUSSELS, Jul 3 (IPS) - The Swedish government, which now holds the
rotating presidency of the
European Union for the second half of
this year, says plans to bring Croatia into
the EU have not been
derailed despite recent political events in the country.
Croatia
is officially set to join the Union as its 28th member in 2011.
RIGHTS-AFRICA: AU Heeds Perpetrators Not Victims
Sirte, LIBYA, Jul 3 (IPS) - The final day of the African Union summit has been
dedicated to the issue of the arrest warrant issued by the
International Criminal Court against Sudanese president Omar
al-Bashir, charged with seven counts of war crimes and crimes
against humanity, including murder, rape and torture.
RUSSIA: Hoping for Much, Expecting Little
MOSCOW, Jul 3 (IPS) - U.S. President Barack Obama's visit to Russia
next week is expected to bring
significant but limited
improvement in troubled relations between the two
giants.
POLITICS-BOTSWANA: Parties Block Women Candidates for Upcoming Elections
GABORONE, Jul 3 (IPS) - As Botswana prepares for general elections in
October, gender activists are protesting against the lack of
female parliamentary candidates.
CUBA-US: Frosty Relations No Bar to Communication
HAVANA, Jul 3 (IPS) - Cuba and the United States are poised to resume
talks on migration issues any time now, although the five Cuban
agents imprisoned in the U.S. remain "a formidable
obstacle" to normalising bilateral relations, according to
Cuban parliament president Ricardo Alarcón.
RIGHTS-INDIA: India's Historic Gay Ruling
KOLKATA, Jul 3 (IPS) - A day after the Delhi High Court's landmark
judgment to overturn a colonial law that criminalised
homosexuality, Indians expressed mixed reactions to the verdict.
Q&A: "The Elites Are Like a Huge Elephant Sitting on Haiti"
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Jul 3 (IPS) - Haitian Prime Minister Michèle Pierre-Louis assumed
office in September 2008. Born in the southern city of Jérémie in
1947, she left Haiti with her family in 1964 following a pogrom
by dictator François Duvalier against his perceived enemies in
her town.
AFRICA: Civil Society to AU: Investment Must Address Marginalisation
Sirte, LIBYA, CAPE TOWN and NAIROBI, Jul 3 (IPS) - No gathering hosted by Libyan leader Moammar
Gaddafi is ever dull, and the Thirteenth Ordinary Session of the
African Union, concluding in Sirte, Libya today has not
disappointed.
HEALTH: Sri Lanka's Battle With Dengue
COLOMBO, Jul 3 (IPS) - Sri Lankan health authorities have had to combat an
upsurge in cases of the lethal Dengue flu in the island nation
this year. They have used mass man-power, public awareness
campaigns and even threatened incarceration to stem the spread of
the killer disease that has touched epidemic levels in the past
six months. But it won’t be easy to stop the disease from
spreading.
KENYA: A Role For Men in Gender Equality
NAIROBI, Jul 3 (IPS) - The recent Gender Festival in Kenya has underlined
the important role that male activism can play in achieving
gender equality and women’s empowerment.
IRAN: Picnicking Outside Evin Prison
TEHRAN, Jul 2 (IPS) - Outside the gates of Tehran's notorious Evin
prison, hundreds wait impatiently – some with blankets spread out
in the parking lot on the street below, making time for dinner.
HEALTH: ‘Global Response Needed for Global (Flu) Challenge’
MEXICO CITY, Jul 2 (IPS) - Health ministers and representatives of 43
countries and the World Health Organisation (WHO) began to meet
Thursday in the Mexican resort city of Cancun to discuss a common
strategy to curb the spread of the H1N1 flu virus.
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Globalisation: The untold stories - IPS News
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TECHNOLOGY: Rare Metals Could Trigger Next Trade War
MEXICO CITY, Jun 26 (IPS/IFEJ) - Used in electric car motors and wind turbines,
neodymium, a "rare earth metal," is at the epicentre of
the race between wealthy and emerging nations to create green
technologies, while poorer countries appear to be relegated to
spectator status.
HEALTH: Climate Change Brings New Diseases
BERLIN, Jun 19 (IPS) - As its name suggests, the West Nile virus, a
leading cause of a form of
meningitis and a neuro-invasive
disease, has until recently been reported
mostly in tropical and
sub-tropical African regions. But it is now about to
become a
global virus.
Q&A: "The Global Crisis Is Really About a 140-dollar Barrel of Oil"*
VANCOUVER, Jun 15 (IPS) - Sitting in the restaurant of Vancouver’s posh
Fairmount Waterfront Hotel, the former chief economist for one of
Canada’s largest banks doesn’t seem like the typical apocalyptic
peak oil theorist.
LABOUR: ILO Urges Action on Financial Speculation
GENEVA, Jun 15 (IPS) - World leaders, employers and trade unionists,
meeting here at a crisis summit
on employment, welcomed a new
‘Global Jobs Pact’, but warned that any delay
in its
implementation would worsen the problems created by financial
speculation.
DEVELOPMENT: Local Currencies Really Can Buy Happiness
ATLANTA, Georgia, May 30 (IPS/IFEJ) - In the face of an economic system which seems to be
premised on environmental harm and profit-driven growth, a
handful of communities across the U.S. and the globe have begun
experimenting with alternative forms of local currency as a
pathway to sustainability.
ECONOMY: ‘‘Africa Should Seize Control over its Development’’
GENEVA, May 29 (IPS) - Colonisation can be blamed for Africa’s
underdevelopment but today Africans must take their fate in their
own hands and become ambitious. The continent badly needs
industrialisation but it has fallen back into the trap of merely
exporting commodities because of booming prices.
EUROPE: Victims of Trafficking Need More than Words
PALERMO, Italy, May 25 (IPS) - A flawed political and economic order that has
failed to create effective
migration policies is behind the rise
of trafficking in persons and the
difficulties in tackling it
effectively, leading campaigners say.
Q&A: Global Crisis Is an Opportunity for Economic Renewal
GENEVA, May 20 (IPS) - The global economic crisis may spell the end of the
Washington Consensus and the structural adjustment programmes
imposed on the South and lead to the emergence of new economic
powers, the so-called ‘‘Next 11’’, of which some will be in
Africa.
WORLD-ECONOMY: IMF Using Global Crisis to "Re-Launch" Itself
CAPE TOWN, May 15 (IPS) - The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is attempting
to reinvent itself with the global financial crisis, in the
process using the opportunity to promote policies that exacerbate
the recession by shrinking rather than growing economies.
MIGRATION: Human Beings Can't Be 'Illegal', Book Argues
NEW YORK, May 12 (IPS) - Julio Guerrero came from Mexico to the U.S. state
of North Carolina on a legal, H2-A temporary visa to work on a
tobacco farm in 2002. After only a few weeks on the job, his
fingers began to hurt and before long his fingernails had fallen
off.
MAY DAY: Europeans Begin to See Red
ATHENS, Apr 30 (IPS) - European unions are facing a difficult choice this
May Day between holding
protests to protect workers'
interests, or holding off to avoid a further
deepening of the
economic recession.
US-LATAM: We Can't Be Trapped by History
PORT OF SPAIN, Apr 18 (IPS) - President Barack Obama had promised that his
administration would be different. His, he
said, would be a
listening, caring one, even though like previous United States
leaders, he
came to the Fifth Summit of the Americas in Trinidad
and Tobago bearing gifts - no doubt
hoping for support for his
new initiatives.
G20: Next Time, Perhaps...
LONDON, Mar 31 (IPS) - If the draft declaration of the G20 meeting in
London is anything to go by, the
most specific outcome of this
summit is that there will be another one later in
the year.
COLOMBIA: Growing International Support for Peace
BOGOTA, Mar 24 (IPS) - The Nasa indigenous people who live in southwestern
Colombia risked their very lives when they took it upon
themselves to blow up munitions and weapons they discovered on
their lands.
ECONOMY-SINGAPORE: Perils of Globalisation
SINGAPORE, Mar 24 (IPS) - This tiny island republic sits on trillions of
dollars in foreign reserves. Yet, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong
said in a BBC interview this month that his country cannot spend
its way out of the economic downturn, until the global economy
heals.
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U.N. Development deadline 2015 - IPS News
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Q&A: "The Elites Are Like a Huge Elephant Sitting on Haiti"
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Jul 3 (IPS) - Haitian Prime Minister Michèle Pierre-Louis assumed
office in September 2008. Born in the southern city of Jérémie in
1947, she left Haiti with her family in 1964 following a pogrom
by dictator François Duvalier against his perceived enemies in
her town.
AFRICA: Civil Society to AU: Investment Must Address Marginalisation
Sirte, LIBYA, CAPE TOWN and NAIROBI, Jul 3 (IPS) - No gathering hosted by Libyan leader Moammar
Gaddafi is ever dull, and the Thirteenth Ordinary Session of the
African Union, concluding in Sirte, Libya today has not
disappointed.
ENVIRONMENT-URUGUAY: Invasion of the Sand Dunes
CIUDAD DE LA COSTA, Uruguay, Jul 1 (IPS) - "A road used to run through here, the sidewalk
was over there, and this was the neighbour’s yard. That was an
esplanade where people parked their cars, and that area over
there was a plaza," says Jackeline, pointing to enormous
sand dunes that have swallowed up everything, even entire trees.
HEALTH-LAOS: Inadequate Sanitation Denting GDP
UNITED NATIONS, Jul 1 (IPS) - Poor sanitation and hygiene costs the Lao People’s
Democratic Republic 193 million dollars per year, an estimated
5.6 percent of gross domestic product, according to figures from
the Water and Sanitation Programme (WSP) of the World Bank.
POLITICS: U.N. Decries Aid Shortfall in Afghanistan
UNITED NATIONS, Jun 30 (IPS) - The United Nations, which has expressed
disappointment over the slow disbursement of development aid to
crisis-stricken Afghanistan, has hurled one of its biggest
political insults at Western donors: threatening to turn to a
U.S. philanthropist for financial assistance.
AFRICA: Maternal Mortality, A Human Rights Catastrophe
BRUSSELS and CAPE TOWN, Jun 30 (IPS) - The right to the highest attainable standard of
health: not the most fashionable of human rights, but the limits
on people's enjoyment of their right to health often coincide
with continuing inequalities behind claims of economic growth or
political reform.
HEALTH-SENEGAL: Fistula Sufferers Left To Their Fate
DAKAR, Jun 30 (IPS) - In Senegal’s southern region, 58 percent of
deliveries take place at home without any medical assistance,
according to state reproductive health officials in Kolda, a town
425 km from the capital, Dakar. Women in the region suffer from
exceptionally high rates of fistula.
RIGHTS: Queer Parade Defies Anachronistic Indian Law
NEW DELHI, Jun 30 (IPS) - "Not all females are women," reads a
poster emblazoned in red. "I am the pink sheep of my
family!" is the message on another, while a third, very
cheekily proclaims, "I don’t give a f***, I am a greedy
bisexual"!
INDONESIA: Presidential Poll Race Disappoints Women’s Activists
DENPASAR, Indonesia, Jun 30 (IPS) - As the country prepares to elect its new president
next week, Indonesian activists are trying to push gender issues
onto the political agenda.
DOMINICAN REPUBLIC: Remittance Crunch, But Women Migrants Keep Sending
SANTO DOMINGO, Jun 30 (IPS) - Among the colourful houses in the neighbourhood
called Vietnam in East Santo Domingo, many families have at least
one family member among the 1.5 million Dominicans living abroad.
RIGHTS: Arab TV Soaps Reinforce Gender Bias
MANAMA, Jun 30 (IPS) - Arabic TV channels wait for Ramadan, the Muslim
month of fasting, to launch new soaps that generally portray
women negatively. Ramadan starts this year at the end of August.
AUSTRALIA: Policy May Force Indigenous Communities From Traditional Lands
MELBOURNE, Jun 29 (IPS) - A government plan purporting to improve the lives
of people living in isolated areas of Australia’s Northern
Territory will be implemented at the expense of surrounding
homeland communities and ignores the cultural and health benefits
for people living on those traditional lands, warn critics.
CLIMATE CHANGE: 2020 Deadline Is the Crucial "Litmus Test"
VIENNA, Jun 29 (IPS) - "So who here thinks there will be a meaningful
deal in Copenhagen?" Few of the more than 600 energy
ministers, officials and experts from 80 countries attending the
Vienna Energy Conference raised their hands in response to the
conference moderator's question about the final round of
climate negotiations this December in Copenhagen.
POLITICS: U.N. Plan for Financial Crisis Derided as Weak
UNITED NATIONS, Jun 29 (IPS) - When the General Assembly adopted a proposed plan
of action aimed at overcoming the global financial crisis, one of
the political surprises was that all 192 member states gave their
blessings to the wide range of proposals spelled out in an
"outcome document".
NEPAL: Third Gender Assert Rights
KATHMANDU, Jun 29 (IPS) - Two years ago, 23-year-old Bhakti Shah, a cadet in
the Nepal Army, was dismissed because she was seen to spend most
of her free time with a fellow female cadet.
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News about our cultural story tellers: The Media - IPS News
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POLITICS: Obama Still Buoyed by Extraordinary Global Popularity
WASHINGTON, Jun 29 (IPS) - Six months into his new job as president of the
United States, Barack Obama inspires more public confidence than
any other political leader, said a new WorldPublicOpinion.org
(WPO) poll released here Monday.
CULTURE-MEXICO: "New Seven Wonders" Win Falls Flat
MEXICO CITY, Jun 28 (IPS) - The Mexican government spent time and money in 2007
to get the Mayan ruins of Chichen Itza declared one of the
"new seven wonders of the world" in a contest organised
by a Swiss-Canadian businessman. But winning has failed to
deliver the desired results.
TRADE-MAURITIUS: Paradise Island, Pirates’ Den
PORT LOUIS, Jun 25 (IPS) - Pirated goods - from music and vehicle parts to
clothes, perfumes and software - are sold at ridiculously low
prices on the streets or in local shops. This is big business in
the paradise-like island state of Mauritius.
GUATEMALA: Journalists in Jeopardy
GUATEMALA CITY, Jun 24 (IPS) - Veteran television reporter Rolando Santiz was on
his way to downtown Guatemala City on Apr. 1 when two gunmen on a
motorcycle drove up alongside his car and killed him in a rain of
gunfire. The photographer driving with him was wounded but
miraculously survived.
RIGHTS: Call to Drop Case Against Journalist
PARIS, Jun 17 (IPS) - Press freedom groups are calling on the
International Criminal Tribunal for the
former Yugoslavia (ICTY)
to drop its case against a French journalist accused of
contempt
over a book about the workings of the court.
DEVELOPMENT: Cambodia Looks to Educate Youth About Painful Past
PHNOM PENH, Jun 12 (Newsmekong/IPS) - Walking through the former S21 security prison
here, one cannot help but be
struck by the hundreds of
black-and-white photographs of former prisoners
who were brought
here, tortured, and then executed.
SOUTH KOREA: Schoolgirls at Forefront of Street Protests
SEOUL, Jun 11 (IPS) - Hundreds of teenagers, many of them female, were
out on the streets Wednesday demanding a public apology from the
Lee Myung-bak government for the tragic death of former president
Moo-hyun Roh, who committed suicide last month.
EGYPT: Cyber Insurgency Rattles Regime
CAIRO, Jun 2 (IPS) - Egyptian cyber-dissidents are becoming increasing
vocal in their online
criticism of President Hosni
Mubarak's regime, utilising a widening repertoire of
Internet networking and publishing tools to expose government
abuses.
CHILE: Study Shows How Leading Paper Colluded with Dictatorship
SANTIAGO, May 26 (IPS) - The coverage of human rights violations cases by
the powerful conservative Chilean newspaper El Mercurio during
the country’s 17-year dictatorship was the focus of a meticulous
study by five young reporters.
TRADE-US: Green Groups Say E-Waste Bill Is Too Lax
WASHINGTON, May 24 (IPS) - Environmentalists are expressing discontent over
recently introduced legislation regarding the U.S.’s exporting of
electronic waste, or "e-waste".
EAST TIMOR: Journalists Hold Out For Better Media Laws
DILI, May 15 (IPS) - Journalists in East Timor are anxiously waiting for
a set of media laws to be
revised after a negative reaction to a
draft that was circulated in March.
EGYPT: Thanks to Facebook, Young Women Take to Political Activism
CAIRO, May 15 (IPS) - In recent years, Egypt has witnessed increasing
participation by women in grassroots political activism. Local
civil rights advocates attribute the phenomenon to novel means of
communication and organisation, especially the social networking
website Facebook.
PAKISTAN: Media in the Taliban’s Crosshairs
KARACHI, May 5 (IPS) - Till two months back, Shireen Zada of the private
television channel Express News would
carry a pistol whenever he
covered the news in the restive Swat Valley in Pakistan’s North
West Frontier Province (NWFP).
DEVELOPMENT: Make Use of African Skills
JOHANNESBURG and CAPE TOWN, May 4 (IPS) - The theme of the third biennial Knowledge
Management Africa (KMA) conference, which opened Monday in the
capital of Senegal, is lofty - "knowledge to reposition
Africa in the world economy". But the aim is more
down-to-earth: to find ways to apply vital information to the
basic question of improving the lives of Africa's people.
EDUCATION-US: Women Reach for Technology Lifeline
NEW YORK, Apr 27 (IPS) - When Brunila lost her job as a flight attendant
after 10 years on the job, she realised she needed to find a more
stable career.
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News about those that make a difference
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Clayton M. Christensen: The White House Office on Social Innovation: A New Paradigm for Solving Social Problems (The Huffington Post)
Article co-authored by Vanessa Kirsch and Kim Syman of New Profit Inc. President Obama's new White House Office on Social Innovation and Civic Participation represents...
Hispanic Heritage Foundation and Staples Foundation for Learning Announce Continued Collaboration and National Teacher ... (Business Wire via Yahoo! Finance)
WASHINGTON----The Hispanic Heritage Foundation , a national non-profit organization that identifies, inspires, promotes and prepares Latino leaders in the community, classroom and workforce, and Staples Foundation for Learning , a private foundation created by Staples, Inc., today announced Mr.
Youth, Social Causes and Movements from Iran to Charity (Mobile Youth)
How Staples is using social networks for charity. Staples recently started it’s campaign, “Do Something 101″, aimed at bringing school supplies to poor children in the United States. The campaign consists in word of mouth buzz and a specifically created FaceBook application.
Banking on Bankless Neighborhoods (US News & World Report)
These banking entrepreneurs used greed to change the face of low-income neighborhoods.
Echoing Green Announces 14 New Social Entrepreneurs To Receive 2009 Fellowship (PRWeb)
Echoing Green, an angel investor in social entrepreneurial organizations, announced today fourteen new initiatives to be funded by the 2009 Echoing Green Fellowship Program with many harnessing the use of innovative technology (PRWeb Jun 16, 2009) Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2009/06/prweb2535704.htm
Echoing Green Announces 14 New Social Entrepreneurs To Receive 2009 Fellowship (PRWeb via Yahoo! News)
Echoing Green, an angel investor in social entrepreneurial organizations, announced today fourteen new initiatives to be funded by the 2009 Echoing Green Fellowship Program with many harnessing the use of innovative technology
Remarks by the First Lady at a Greater DC Cares event (The White House)
Renaissance Hotel Washington, D.C. MRS. OBAMA: Thank you. Thank you so much. Well, that's very -- please -- said that is just a very nice welcome. It's an example of how the Obama family has felt welcomed to this community since January -- what was that date we got inaugurated? (Laughter.)
School's hope: from big ideas, great things grow (Sydney Morning Herald)
A REVOLUTIONARY Sydney school aims to give tomorrow's entrepreneurs all the skills they need to turn their ideas into successful enterprises.
Greyston CEO pens book on 'doing good' business (The Journal News)
YONKERS - The Greyston Bakery, an enterprise that employs struggling men and women, has a motto on its Web site - 'We don't hire people to bake brownies. We bake brownies to hire people.'
Mensante named one of Top 10 Healthcare Companies to Watch (CNW Group via Yahoo! Finance)
Market research leader IDC Canada has featured MaRS client Mensante as one of its "Ten Canadian Health Companies to Watch" in 2009.
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My New Book
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Germinate your dreams and check out Seeds ...of Germination ...or Termination!
"...a wake up call from the future - to make the choices today that will defend our freedoms tomorrow." -Dr. Vandana Shiva, physicist, activist and author.
"With an ominous echo of Orwell's 1984, Seeds exposes the 'terminator' values beneath today's complex global crises, challenging us to live with courage and compassion to create a more just and sustainable world." -Diane Dreher, professor of English, Santa Clara University and bestselling author of The Tao of Inner Peace.
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