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

CLIMATE CHANGE: History Was Not Made
By Stephen Leahy*
COPENHAGEN (IPS/TerraViva) – There is no Copenhagen climate treaty. History was not made here and no deal was sealed.
ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=49755

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POLITICS: The Week the IAEA Applied a Nuclear Double Standard
Analysis by Gareth Porter*
WASHINGTON (IPS) – In 2004, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) revealed that a member state had violated its Safeguards Agreement by carrying out covert uranium conversion and enrichment activities and plutonium experiments for more than two decades. The nature of certain of those enrichment activities, moreover, raised legitimate suspicions of interest in a nuclear weapons programme.
ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=49756

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DEVELOPMENT: South-South Cooperation at 30-Year High
By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS (IPS) – As the United Nations commemorated its sixth annual 'U.N. Day for South-South Cooperation' Friday, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon singled out the growing new ties among developing countries that go far beyond trade and investments: education, science, agriculture, medicine, health services and information technologies.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=49749

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ARGENTINA: Solar Villages Light Up the Andes
By Marcela Valente*
BUENOS AIRES (Tierramérica) – The residents of the Puna, the dry Andean highlands in northern Argentina, are cut off from everything – except the sun. Living on arid land thousands of metres above sea level, they are on their way to becoming “solar villages.”
ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=49665

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SOUTH SUDAN: Women Perpetuate Culture of Submission
By Miriam Gathigah
TORIT, southern Sudan (IPS) – All day Rosalinda Duany sells vegetables from her stall at the local market, earning a living to feed her family while her husband spends his days idling with his friends. But when his days become too boring and he demands his conjugal rights, Duany wordlessly stops work just to oblige him.
ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=49726

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PHILIPPINES: Belt-tightening by Migrant Workers Unfelt at Home
By Tess Bacalla*
BATANGAS, Philippines (IPS) – The global financial crisis may have dealt a severe blow to Filipino migrant workers, thousands of whom lost their jobs and fell into debt. But public schoolteacher Melinda Mendoza does not see this impact at all — at least not within the four walls of her classroom.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=49751

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UGANDA: Political Parties Fail to Declare Funding
By Joshua Kyalimpa
KAMPALA (IPS) – The Electoral Commission of Uganda says if they tightened the noose around parties which fail to declare election funding, all of them would probably be deregistered.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=49748

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EUROPE: Cosy With Israel, Despite the Headlines
Analysis by David Cronin
BRUSSELS (IPS) – Israel's relations with the European Union were tense for most of 2009 – if newspaper headlines are to be believed. In the past week, a British court drew fierce criticism from Israeli politicians after it issued an arrest warrant for Tzipi Livni, the former Israeli foreign minister, following a complaint that she had authorised war crimes in Gaza.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=49742

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BURMA: A Celebration of Life through the Arts under the Junta
Analysis by Marwaan Macan-Markar
CHIANG MAI, Thailand (IPS) – The Burmese military spares nothing with its iron grip on power ? not even art.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=49719

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RIGHTS: Brazil's Turn for Truth and Justice?
By Mario Osava
RIO DE JANEIRO (IPS) – Almost 25 years after the fall of the dictatorship in Brazil, relatives of the victims and human rights activists are still battling to discover the fate of those who were murdered or “disappeared,” gain access to official records and find out in detail what went on under the repressive regime.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=49730

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CLIMATE CHANGE: No Water in Copenhagen Talks
By Stephen Leahy*
COPENHAGEN (Tierramérica) – In the last two years, the conclusion among decision-makers has been that the only way to solve the climate crisis is to turn carbon into a commodity and privatise the atmosphere.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=49733

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