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

POLITICS: Will U.S. Make a Difference on Human Rights Council?
By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS (IPS) – Will the election of the United States to the 47-member Geneva-based Human Rights Council (HRC) make a significant difference to the cause of human rights worldwide, or will Washington be thwarted by the Council’s politically-repressive countries accused of being serial abusers?
ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=46835

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RIGHTS-COLOMBIA: Victims of State Crimes Speak Out
By Constanza Vieira
FLORENCIA, Colombia (IPS) – In the midst of civil war and repression in San Vicente del Caguán, a municipality in southern Colombia, local communities and activists continue to hold forums to draw attention to human rights abuses. What keeps them going?
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=46845

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NEPAL: Explosive Reminders of War
By Mallika Aryal
GULMI, Nepal (IPS) – Eighteen army deminers are hard at work in the minefields of Wami Taksar in central Nepal. The deminers start out early in the morning, before the sun is too hot. They move meticulously from one mine to another, carefully excavating each one, and they take breaks to stay alert.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=46833

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AGRICULTURE-AFRICA: Knowledge Is Power for Farmers
By Joyce Mulama
NAIROBI (IPS) – Following training by the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa, a hundred farmers in central Kenya, armed with an improved understanding of their local markets are commanding higher prices for their bananas.
ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=46877

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U.S.: McChrystal Choice Suggests Special Ops Strikes to Continue
Analysis by Gareth Porter*
WASHINGTON (IPS) – The choice of Lt. Gen. Stanley McChrystal to become the new U.S. commander in Afghanistan has been hailed by Defence Secretary Robert Gates and national news media as ushering in a new unconventional approach to counterinsurgency.
ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=46821

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POLITICS-INDIA: Poll Results Vindicate Congress Party Policies
By Ranjit Devraj
NEW DELHI (IPS) – By winning convincingly in India?s month-long general election, the ruling Congress party?s policy of reforms combined with a commitment to India?s rural masses and secularism seems to have paid off.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=46879

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MIDEAST: Abbas Standing Takes a Fall
By Mel Frykberg
RAMALLAH (IPS) – Yet another sign of the growing unpopularity of the Western-backed Palestinian Authority (PA) was evident on the streets of Ramallah last weekend.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=46806

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LIBERIA: Rural Women Confront Hunger Gap, Their Own Way
By Rebecca Murray
ZWEDRU, Liberia (IPS) – Three brightly-clothed women walk slowly around the fallen, charred trees strewn haphazardly across the blackened clearing, each carrying snail shells filled with indigenous rice seed to bury in the rich soil.
ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=46859

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MIDEAST: Families Down to a Meal a Day
By Erin Cunningham
GAZA CITY (IPS) – Um Abdullah cannot remember the last time she was able to feed meat to her eight children. She does know that for the past week the single meal she cooked for them each day consisted only of lentils. And that on one day, she had received aid coupons from the United Nations, which she subsequently sold to buy tomatoes and eggplant at the local market.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=46824

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PERU: Microbusiness Helps Women Weather Crisis
By Blanca Rosales*
LIMA (IPS) – Microenterprise is an escape valve for social tension at times of crisis, and microbusinesses do a better job of weathering the storm than bigger companies because they are used to overcoming difficulties – a positive effect that is further multiplied when it involves women.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=46863

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