The Week with IPS

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

MIDEAST: Trapped Between the Wall and the Green Line
By Mel Frykberg
RAMALLAH (IPS) – “They started smashing down doors at 2am last Wednesday before moving through homes and destroying property,” says the mayor of Jayyus, Muhammed Taher Shamasni.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=45913

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INDIA/PAKISTAN: Trade, Travel Across Divided Kashmir Stalled
By Athar Parvaiz
SRINAGAR (IPS) – Trade and travel between the Indian and Pakistan parts of Kashmir, as part of confidence building measures (CBMs) between the two rival countries, appear to have become a casualty of the Nov. 26-29 terror attacks on the port city of Mumbai.
ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=45933

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POLITICS: Obama’s New Iran Envoy Met With Scepticism
By Omid Memarian
BERKELEY, California (IPS) – The appointment of Dennis Ross as a special advisor to U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has found a cool reaction in Tehran and some U.S. policy circles.
ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=45902

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ENVIRONMENT: Amazon Teetering on the Edge
By Mario Osava*
RIO DE JANEIRO (Tierramérica) – The Amazon Basin captures 12,000 to 16,000 square kilometres of water per year, and just 40 percent of that flows through the rivers. The rest returns to the atmosphere through evapotranspiration of the forests and is distributed throughout South America.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=45898

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UGANDA: In Search of Peace and Justice
By Joshua Kyalimpa
KAMPALA (IPS) – Alice Anywar lives in the Pagak resettlement camp in Gulu and at 39 is a multiple victim of the over 20 year-old Lords Resistance Army (LRA) insurgency in northern Uganda. The rebels first attacked her home in Kilak village in 1987 killing both her parents and abducting her 12-year old brother. In 2002 they murdered her husband whom she had met in a refugee camp.
ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=45910

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COLOMBIA: Awá Indians Hemmed in by War
By Constanza Vieira*
BOGOTÁ (IPS) – Colombia?s FARC guerrillas admitted to killing eight Awá Indians who they accused of being army informants. Expert on military affairs Ariel Ávila said this indigenous community in the war-torn province of Nariño had formed vigilante “self-defence” groups.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=45921

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MINING-LIBERIA: Steel Town Blues For Yekepa
By Rebecca Murray
YEKEPA, Liberia (IPS) – Three exhausted railroad workers sip beer and talk on the back porch of a makeshift bar in Liberia’s rural Nimba County, concealed by nightfall and the deafening din of motorcycles and a generator nearby.
ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=45932

Audio recordings of the interviews are available here: ipsnews.net/real_news/IPSAfricaAudio/Yekepa_Fuller_Final.mp3

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POLITICS: Dutch Foe of Islam Ignores US Allies’ Far Right Ties
By Daniel Luban and Eli Clifton*
WASHINGTON (IPS) – The fiercely anti-Islam Dutch MP Geert Wilders has been traveling through the U.S. this week on a highly-publicised trip to meet with politicians, promote his controversial film ?Fitna?, and raise money for his legal defence back home.
ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=45928

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MIDEAST: Under the Bombing, A Girl Child Called Hope
By Erin Cunningham
GAZA CITY (IPS) – Ghalia Hussein’s husband refused to evacuate their Rafah home near the Israeli border amid heavy bombardment during the recent 22-day siege. Struck by a missile at the top of their stairs, he bled to death while ambulances attempted to reach him. He left Ghalia three children, a destroyed home, and no income to speak of.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=45897

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KOREAS: ‘Missile Rattling Won’t Work’
Analysis by Ahn Mi-Young
SEOUL (IPS) – South Korean President Lee Myung-bak warned leaders in North Korea on Sunday that it would be counterproductive for Pyongyang to pursue a path involving the development of missiles that threaten its neighbours.
ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=45934

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