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

POLITICS: NIE Reveals Qom Facility Followed 2007 Bush Threats
By Gareth Porter*
WASHINGTON (IPS) – The Barack Obama administration claims that construction of a second Iranian uranium enrichment facility at Qom began before Tehran’s decision to withdraw from a previous agreement to inform the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in advance of such construction. But the November 2007 U.S. intelligence estimate on Iran’s nuclear programme tells a different story.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=48975

*****
THAILAND: Renewable Energy Not So Clean and Green After All?
By Nantiya Tangwisutijit*
PICHIT, Thailand (IPS/IFEJ) – The view from Bhorn?s window in
this northern province is as picturesque as one can find in rural
Thailand. The Nan River flows majestically through the Gulf of Thailand,
located 300 kilometres to the south. Mango and banana trees line the
banks with expansive verdant green paddy fields beyond.
ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=48967

*****
VENEZUELA: El Niño Dries Up Water, Power, Food Supply
By Humberto Márquez
CARACAS (IPS) – The guanábana (soursop) trees in Victoria Martínez’s small orchard have yielded none of their delicious fruit this year, which she blames on the scarcity of water, a problem as annoying as the power blackouts at her house close to Tocuyito, a sun-baked town 120 kilometres southwest of the Venezuelan capital.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=48972

*****
BULGARIA: Migrants Denied Even Medicine
By Claudia Ciobanu
BUCHAREST (IPS) – Hasun Albaadzh, an asylum-seeker from Syria, died Oct. 6 at the Busmantsi detention centre on the outskirts of Bulgarian capital Sofia. He had been held at Busmantsi for 34 months – considerably more than the maximum legal period of detention – and had been denied proper medical care.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=48903

*****
HEALTH-AFRICA: Fresh Campaign Against Paediatric AIDS
By Nalisha Kalideen
JOHANNESBURG (IPS) – Eleven years ago, Raloke Odetoyinbo had been married for two years and a month when she found out she was HIV positive.
ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=48962

*****
ENVIRONMENT-US: Greatest of Lakes Hit by Climate Change
By Adrianne Appel*
MILWAUKEE, Wisconsin (IPS/IFEJ) – The weather was right for swimming this summer along the shores of Lake Michigan, but on many days, the only living things seen on the beach were gulls, picking away at zebra mussels ensnared in a thick, green slime that covered every rock, pebble and grain of sand for miles.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=48956

*****
MIGRATION-EL SALVADOR: Broken Homes, Broken Families
By Edgardo Ayala
SAN SALVADOR (IPS) – Zoila, 54, is raising her two grandchildren, who were left behind when her daughter headed to the United States in search of a better income. There are many women like her acting as surrogate mothers to their grandchildren in El Salvador, one of the Latin American countries with the largest proportion of its population living and working abroad.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=48907

*****
MIDEAST: Rabbis Take on Settlers
By Mel Frykberg
AWARTA, West Bank (IPS) – Away from the media spotlight that focuses on the widening chasm between Israelis and Palestinians, a group of Israeli humanists is quietly working to break down barriers with their Palestinian neighbours.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=48938

*****
UGANDA: Lifting Silence on Menstruation to Keep Girls in School
By Joshua Kyalimpa
KAMPALA (IPS) – More than half of Ugandan girls who enrol in grade one drop out before sitting for their primary school-leaving examinations.
ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=48961

*****
PAKISTAN: Beyond the Storm, Eco-Friendly Dream Homes
By Zofeen Ebrahim*
KARACHI (IPS/IFEJ) – “I don?t think I will ever miss the old
home; it never protected us from floods and storms!” said Dadi Ibrahim,
a widow. Her only association, she said, with her dilapidated hut is the
“fond memories” of living there with her late husband.
ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=48923

*****
GUATEMALA: Town that Suffered Military Terror Fights Reopening of Base
By Danilo Valladares
GUATEMALA CITY (IPS) – People in the town of Ixcán in northwestern Guatemala could relive the pain of the country’s 36-year civil war if the army reopens a military base in the area, where more than 100 massacres of indigenous villagers were committed during the armed conflict.
ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=48928

**********
SIGN UP TO RECEIVE THE NEW IPS GENDERWIRE:

IPS wants to redress a huge imbalance that exists today: Only about 22 percent of the voices you hear and read in the news are women?s. You can change your perspective – Read the new IPS Gender Wire.
ipsnews.net/_newsletter/genderwire.asp

**********
DON'T MISS IPS EXCLUSIVE COVERAGE OF WOMEN IN THE NEWS.

Elections, health, education, armed conflicts, corruption, laws, trade, climate change, the global financial and food crises, and natural disasters – IPS covers these frontline issues asking an often forgotten question: What does it mean for women and girls?
www.ipsnews.net/new_focus/women/index.asp

Read more global news at: www.ipsnews.net/

Inter Press Service News Agency (IPS), the world’s leading provider of information on global issues, is backed by a network of journalists in more than 150 countries. Its clients include more than 3,000 media organisations and tens of thousands of civil society groups, academics, and other users.

IPS focuses its news coverage on the events and global processes affecting the economic, social and political development of peoples and nations.

Visit Inter Press Service at www.ipsnews.net