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

HAITI: Women “More Protected” to Report Sexual Violence
By Valeria Vilardo
Port-au-Prince, Jul 22 (IPS) – It has been five years since the U.N. sent peacekeepers to Haiti following the forced departure of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, and the country, while not in a state of war, remains one of the world’s most unstable.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=47753

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HEALTH-AFRICA: Where To Find A Million New Nurses?
By Kristin Palitza
CAPE TOWN, Jul 21 (IPS) – If developing countries want to succeed in improving their health systems, they urgently need to decentralise them and shift tasks from doctors to nurses and community health workers, said experts at the Fifth International AIDS Society (IAS) Conference on HIV Pathogenesis, Treatment and Prevention in Cape Town.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=47747

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DR-CONGO: Firms Fuelling ‘Conflict Minerals’ Violence, Report Says
By Marina Litvinsky
WASHINGTON, Jul 21 (IPS) – Several international companies are named as helping to prolong the more than 12-year conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in a new report by the British-based group Global Witness, released Tuesday.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=47746

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BALKANS: Visas Eased, Except in Muslim Areas
By Vesna Peric Zimonjic
BELGRADE, Jul 22 (IPS) – Almost two decades after the break-up of former Yugoslavia, people from some of the new states that emerged have been granted visa-free travel to the European Union (EU) from the beginning of next year.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=47751

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SRI LANKA: Clinching a Crucial IMF Lifeline
By Feizal Samath
COLOMBO, Jul 21 (IPS) – After months of being at the receiving end of international criticism for human rights violations, Sri Lanka finally clinched a crucial agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Tuesday for a standby credit facility of $2.5 billion, which will help bolster the country?s foreign exchange reserves depleted by the sharp impacts of the global economic downturn and an expensive war.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=47741

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Q&A: The South Can Also Be Consumers of Fair Trade Products
Sybrandus Adema interviews BOUDEWIJN GOOSSENS, the executive director of Fairtrade Label South Africa (FLSA)
CAPE TOWN, Jul 21 (IPS) – Fair trade is moving into a different era as developing countries become consumers and not just producers of fair trade products. South Africa is the first country from the South to initiate this shift.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=47739

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HAITI: “We Have Never Had Justice”
By Michael Deibert
ST. MARC, Jul 21 (IPS) – Amazil Jean-Baptiste remembers when they came to kill her son.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=47745

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ENVIRONMENT-GUATEMALA: Mines Bring No Benefits to Local People
By Danilo Valladares
GUATEMALA CITY, Jul 21 (IPS) – The new draft law on mining before the Guatemalan parliament does not strictly regulate water use and environmental protection, does not provide for community consultation, and sets royalties payable to the state at too low a level, say environmental and social organisations.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=47743

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BRAZIL: When the Arid Northeast Turns Green
By Mario Osava*
NOVA RUSSAS, Brazil, Jul 22 (Tierramérica) – The rain – usually much desired because it is so scarce – has come in excess this year, destroying many crops. But in this farming district in far north-eastern Brazil, the impact of the heavy rainfall was less marked than in the past, thanks to the diversification of crops and productive activities.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=47761

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ENVIRONMENT: Open Pit Disasters in Mexico and Peru
By Emilio Godoy*
TLALPUJAHUA, Mexico, Jul 24 (IPS) – Mariana Rangel is filled with nostalgia as she gazes at the abandoned installations of the Dos Estrellas mine, where she worked as a secretary for six years. “Those were years of prosperity; this is all there is left,” she tells IPS, pointing to what used to be the local hospital.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=47787

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