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

DISARMAMENT: No Slowdown for Weapons Industry
By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS (IPS) – The United Nations is surprised at the continued rise in global military spending – particularly at a time when the international community is grappling with a spreading financial crisis which threatens to undermine the poverty reduction goals of the world body.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=48409

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NIGERIA: Govt Gears Up for Another Offensive in the Delta
Analysis by Daniel Volman*
WASHINGTON (IPS) – There is mounting evidence that the government of Nigerian President Umaru Musa Yar’adua is set to launch a full-scale offensive in the Niger Delta when a ceasefire declared by rebels ends on Sep. 15.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=48428

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MIDEAST: Stolen Room Offers a Split View
By Jerrold Kessel and Pierre Klochendler
OCCUPIED EAST JERUSALEM (IPS) – In the early morning sunlight, the smoky window of the plush new apartment reflects back a golden tinge from the Dome of the Rock that stands at the heart of Islam’s third holiest shrine.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=48350

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COLOMBIA: Neutrality Impossible for Indigenous Groups
Analysis by Javier Darío Restrepo
BOGOTA (IPS) – The latest killings of Awá Indians in southern Colombia ? 12 members of a family, including four children and three teenagers ?, the forced displacement of hundreds of native villagers, and death threats against indigenous leaders and teachers are signs indicating that their demand to be considered neutral in the armed conflict is still being ignored.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=48397

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ECONOMY: ?Africa Is Paying Most for a Crisis Not of its Making?
By Stanley Kwenda
KINSHASA (IPS) – The global economic crisis has hit the African continent especially hard despite not being involved in its making, civil society organisations gathered in the capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo heard at the fifth people?s summit of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) in the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=48406

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SRI LANKA: Women Want Better Pay, Out of Free Trade Zones
By Amantha Perera
KATUNAYAKE, Sri Lanka (IPS) – The room is dingy and cramped. The
walls are unplastered and its rough cement edges can scrape the skin
easily. Furniture is strewn all over the place, plastic chairs stacked
one on top of the other, boxes on top of them, handbags hanging from the
wall and clothes on a rack. A small kerosene cooker is kept on the side
of the room while a bicycle is parked next to the only bed in the
10-by-10-feet room.
ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=48389

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HEALTH-SOUTHERN AFRICA: Learning From Criticism, U.S. Committed to AIDS Fight
Stanley Kwenda interviews ERIC GOOSBY, United States global AIDS coordinator for PEPFAR
HARARE (IPS) – The United States has embarked on a mission to restore Africa’s trust in U.S. commitment to global AIDS relief.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=48425

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MEDIA-ASIA: Senior Citizens Log On to the Wide, Wired World
By Lynette Lee Corporal* – Asia Media Forum
BANGKOK (IPS) – They may be in their twilight years but Asia’s senior citizens are not ready to be left behind – and forgotten – by the wide, wired world.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=48403

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EDUCATION-BRAZIL: Public Schools Fend Off Invasion of New Ideas
By Mario Osava
ARAÇUAI, Brazil (IPS) – Two non-governmental initiatives managed to penetrate the walls around public education in Brazil, temporarily assuming responsibility for the administration of schools where they left their seeds planted. But ultimately they discovered how resistant the school system is to innovation.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=48427

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BRAZIL: From Learning Circle to Flights of Artistic Imagination
By Mario Osava
ARAÇUAÍ, Brazil (IPS) – Slender, small and long-haired, 11-year-old Higor Fonseca sounds much older when he talks. He has a great deal to tell, in spite of living in this small, sleepy town in the interior of Brazil, where most workers are employed as seasonal migrant labourers in other parts of the country.
ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=48379

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MIDEAST: To Rap Is to Resist
By Eva Bartlett
GAZA CITY (IPS) – In a backstreet open-air café in Gaza late at night, Khaled Harara from the Black Unit Band starts to talk about rap.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=48421

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