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

POLITICS-US: Nukes Agency Pushes New Bomb Production
By Matthew Cardinale
ATLANTA, Georgia (IPS) – Despite statements by U.S. President Barack Obama that he wants to see the world reduce, and eventually eliminate nuclear weapons, the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration continues to push forward on a programme called Complex Modernisation, which would expand two existing nuclear plants to allow them to produce new plutonium pits and new bomb parts out of enriched uranium for use in a possible new generation of nuclear bombs.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=48654

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SRI LANKA: Mixed Hopes amid Unpredictable Weather Shifts
By Amantha Perer
COLOMBO (IPS) – As the world awaits with bated breath the much-anticipated outcome of the upcoming Copenhagen Climate Change Summit in December, the impact of which will reverberate across the globe, Sri Lanka, like many other countries, has been reeling under sharply contrasting weather conditions
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=48686

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POLITICS: U.N. Session Marked by Highs and Lows
Analysis by Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS (IPS) – The two-week long high-level segment of the U.N. General Assembly, which concluded last week, was characterised by historic moments, political controversies, and at times, routine boredom.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=48700

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EASTERN EUROPE: Fair Trade Takes Off
By Claudia Ciobanu
BUCHAREST (IPS) – Fair trade is becoming popular in Central and Eastern Europe, as activist groups raise awareness of the region’s responsibility towards the rest of the world, and open an increasing number of fair trade shops and cafes.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=48639

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MALAWI: Surplus Crop, But We Are Starving – Farmers
By Charles Mpaka
BLANTYRE (IPS) – In a country where maize crop surplus fills the national storehouses to capacity, farmers Ida and Montfort Salijeni and their four children have turned to wild tubers for food.
ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=48641

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MIDEAST: A Diplomat Visits, and Listens
By Jerrold Kessel and Pierre Klochendler
EAST JERUSALEM (IPS) – The U.S. consulate on Agron Street is something alien in the carefully calibrated diplomatic world of Arab-Israeli politics.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=48677

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HONDURAS: Anti-Coup Resistance Movement “Firmly United”
By Juan Ramón Durán
TEGUCIGALPA (IPS) – The National Resistance Front Against the Coup d’Etat (FRN) in Honduras is carrying out a nationwide consultation among its members to establish its position with respect to the expected talks between ousted President Manuel Zelaya and the de facto government, the movement’s leaders said.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=48706

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CAMEROON: ‘Our Lives Are Defined By This Forest’
By Ngala Kilian Chimtom
YAOUNDE (IPS) – Pauline Siembe, a Baka pygmy in South East Cameroon, comes out of her smoky hut licking her fingers after a meal of pounded yam and bush meat soup.
ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=48717

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JAPAN: Buddhist Priests Use Pop Culture to Win Back Faithful
TOKYO (IPS) – Hip hop. Fashion. Zen café. Animation.
Who could have thought that these pop culture staples would come to be associated with a religion known for its centuries-old traditions advocating a strict life of self-denial?
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=48686

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MEXICO: Underwater Museum to Protect Coral Reefs
By Verónica Díaz Favela*
MEXICO CITY (IPS/IFEJ) – Four sculptures in human forms, made of concrete, will be submerged in November in the Mexican Caribbean – the first of 400 figures that will comprise the world’s largest underwater museum.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=48711

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