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

CLIMATE CHANGE: Science vs Politics at the Edge of the North Pole
By Stephen Leahy
NY-ÅLESUND, Svalbard, Norway (IPS) – Spectacular views of mountains and glaciers here in the world’s most northerly permanent human settlement contrasted with business and political leaders’ pessimism and concern about the enormous gap between the action on climate that science deems necessary and what politics considers realistic.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=47218

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BURMA: Jurists Want Security Council to Open War Crimes Probe
By Marwaan Macan-Markar
BANGKOK (IPS) – Thanks to support from China and Russia, Burma?s military regime has escaped harsh criticism at the U.N. Security Council. But this diplomatic deal could come under pressure following the release of a report commissioned by leading international jurists, accusing the regime of committing “war crimes.”
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=47125

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PERU: ?Police Are Throwing Bodies in the River,? Say Native Protesters
By Milagros Salazar
LIMA (IPS) – There are conflicting reports on a violent incident in Peru?s Amazon jungle region in which both police officers and indigenous protesters were killed.
ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=47142

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MIDEAST: Israel Tightens Stranglehold in East Jerusalem
By Jerrold Kessel and Pierre Klochendler
WADI QADOUM, East Jerusalem (IPS) – “What are you doing here?” The motorist in the battered white Volvo stops to ask us alongside an overflowing rubbish cart. Residents of this poor Palestinian neighbourhood in occupied East Jerusalem have been burning garbage in a bid to clear the uncollected mounds.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=47211

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COLOMBIA: All the President’s Spies
Analysis by Javier Darío Restrepo
BOGOTA (IPS) – Colombian journalist Hollman Morris phoned an international news agency and said in an agitated voice: “I am being followed by the police.”
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=47210

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CLIMATE CHANGE: China Rallying South to Defend Right to Development
By Antoaneta Bezlova
BEIJING (IPS) – As the December deadline for reaching a global climate deal in Copenhagen approaches, China is claiming leadership – rallying emerging economies to defend their rights to development and strike bargaining positions with rich nations.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=47200

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ENVIRONMENT-ZIMBABWE: Farmers Go to War Against Lantana Camara
By Phyllis Kachere
HARARE (IPS) – Armed with picks, axes and hoes, a group of enthusiastic villagers break into song: “Randana kamara wakaipa, Randana kamara wakashata.Watora ufuro hwezvipfuyo, wauraya mombe.” (”Lantana camara, you are evil. You have taken over grazing land for our livestock, you have killed our cattle.”)
ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=47194

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PERU: Native Protesters Search for Their Dead
By Milagros Salazar
BAGUA, Peru (IPS) – Indigenous people taking part in protests near this town in the northern Peruvian province of Amazonas that ended in a bloody clash with the police last week are now focusing on drawing up a list of the dead and missing, amidst a climate of fear and mistrust.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=47188

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US-PAKISTAN: CIA Secrecy on Drone Attacks Data Hides Abuses
By Gareth Porter*
WASHINGTON (IPS) – The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency?s refusal to share with other agencies even the most basic data on the bombing attacks by remote-controlled unmanned predator drones in Pakistan?s northwestern tribal region, combined with recent revelations that CIA operatives have been paying Pakistanis to identify the targets, suggests that managers of the drone attacks programmes have been using the total secrecy surrounding the programme to hide abuses and high civilian casualties.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=47196

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DEVELOPMENT-AFRICA: Focus on Housing the Urban Poor
By Joyce Mulama
NAIROBI (IPS) – Millions of people move to Africa?s cities every year, swelling the numbers of urban poor. “We cannot chase people away from slums,” says Kelvin Mmangisa, chief executive of the Lilongwe City Assembly. “But we can improve the conditions there to make their lives better.”
ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=47190

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ENVIRONMENT: The Greening of the French, Finally
By Alecia D. McKenzie
PARIS (IPS) – Compost boxes on the balcony of small apartments. Queues at market stalls selling organic produce. Massive audiences for a film about the state of the earth. Unprecedented votes for environmental politicians in the European elections.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=47175

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