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

Musharraf Quits, Avoids Impeachment
Amir Mir
ISLAMABAD – Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf resigned from office on Monday ending weeks of speculation over whether he would quit or face impeachment on charges of illegally seizing power by a parliament elected in February and dominated by political parties opposed to him.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=43585

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One-Fifth of Iraq Funding Paid to Contractors
William Fisher
NEW YORK – As a new report forecasts that the 190,000 private contractors in Iraq and neighbouring countries will cost U.S. taxpayers more than 100 billion dollars by the end of 2008, an under-the-radar Florida court case suggests that U.S. President George W. Bush — a staunch contractor supporter — is preparing to throw security contractors such as Blackwater under the political bus.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=43565

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GEORGIA: Israeli Arms Sales Raise New Concerns
Peter Hirschberg
JERUSALEM – With the eruption of fighting between Russia and Georgia, Israel has found itself in an awkward position as a result of its arms sales to Georgia, caught between its friendly relations with Georgia and its fear that the continued sale of weaponry will spark Russian retribution in the form of increased arms sales to Iran and Syria.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=43524

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Escaping the Poverty Trap
Mercedes Sayagues
PRETORIA – What do they have in common — the landless widow with a deaf son in Bangladesh, the 12-year-old miner in Kyrgyzstan, the Ugandan farming couple with 12 children and the South African domestic worker who loses her home when her husband dies and her job when she breaks a leg? They, and their children, are trapped in chronic poverty, even as their countries show economic growth.
ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=43566

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MIDEAST: Gaza and West Bank in Muddied Separation
Mel Frykberg
RAMALLAH – Over a hundred Fatah fighters loyal to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah movement fled to the West Bank from Gaza last week, fearing for their lives at the hands of Hamas, the Islamic movement which took over the Gaza Strip in June 2007 after it routed Fatah forces.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=43556

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ZIMBABWE: Civil Society Demands More From Talks
Stanley Kwenda
JOHANNESBURG – A barrage of banners denouncing Zimbabwe president Robert Mugabe greeted passersby in the well-manicured gardens of Johannesburg’s Sandton Convention Centre, where that country’s political crisis is high on the agenda of the Southern African Development Community summit.
ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=43582

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BOLIVIA: Divided Along Regional, Social and Ethnic Lines
Humberto Márquez
CARACAS – The dialogue with opposition governors that Bolivian President Evo Morales has called for in the wake of last week’s recall referendum, to overcome the growing polarisation in the country, will run up against regional, social and ethnic divisions, according to analysts.
ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=43551

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PAKISTAN: Experts Warn of Unrest Over Food Prices
Zofeen Ebrahim
KARACHI – For Mohammed Bashir, a restaurant chef, it was galling to have to be standing in line at a langar (soup kitchen) waiting to be served a free meal. Bashir lost his job four months ago when he injured a finger in a traffic accident.
ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=43568

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PHILIPPINES: Hungry for Rice, Unwilling to Invest
Prime Sarmiento
MANILA – When the price of rice nearly doubled to about 90 US cents per kilo, two months ago, Liza Valino put cheaper substitutes like bananas and sweet potatoes on the table to feed her family of ten. But no one was satisfied.
ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=43572

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Tortuous Road to Justice in Inter-American System
Raúl Pierri
MONTEVIDEO – Financial costs and lack of information are the main hurdles that public defenders must overcome in order to bring cases before the Inter-American Court on Human Rights, which ended its XXXV extraordinary period of sessions Friday in the Uruguayan capital.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=43578

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HIV On The Rise in U.S.
Sam Cassanos
NEW YORK – A new study shows that the annual number of HIV infections in the United States is greater than was previously believed. The findings place increased scrutiny on the country?s lack of a national HIV/AIDS program as well as the current Presidential candidates? plans to combat the epidemic.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=43529

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