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

POLITICS: U.S. Arms Feed Yemen's Gun Culture
By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS (IPS) – When Yemen refused to vote in support of a U.S.-sponsored Security Council resolution against Iraq during the 1990-1991 Gulf War, a visibly angry U.S. delegate turned to the Yemeni diplomat and said: “That will be the last time you will ever vote against a U.S. resolution.”
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=49860

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MIDEAST: New Year Reopens Wounds of the Old
By Eva Bartlett
GAZA CITY (IPS) – For many survivors of thelast Israeli war on Gaza, time has not healed their wounds, physical oremotional.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=49850

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ENVIRONMENT: Invasion of the Little Green Molecules
By Elizabeth Grossman*
PORTLAND, Oregon (IPS/IFEJ) – While the world's climate negotiators were getting ready for Copenhagen earlier this month, a meeting was taking place in Mumbai to discuss progress in green chemistry, a field that ? like the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions ? has the potential to greatly enhance the world's environmental health and sustainability.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=49871

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PAKISTAN: ?Eye for an Eye? Judgment Hailed, Denounced
KARACHI (IPS) – For Fazeelat Bibi, 21, the last few days of 2009
have brought her some retribution, if not cheer. “Justice has been
delivered,” said the young woman, her voice void of any feelings.
ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=49863

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ENVIRONMENT: Fishing in the Sewer
By Cam McGrath*
CAIRO (IPS/IFEJ) – After four hours on theNile in a rowboat with his two sons, fisher Hussein Abdel Malek tallies themorning catch: a plastic water bottle, an empty juice box, a half dozen plasticbags and two small tilapia.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=49861

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COLOMBIA: Women Empowered by Restoring Desertified Land
By Helda Martínez
NATAGAIMA, Colombia (IPS) – Indigenous and rural women from southern Tolima, a province located in the heart of Colombia, are lending a hand to the bleak land around them, with the aim of simultaneously recovering the ecosystem and regaining their own dignity, in a community effort that is changing their environment and their lives.
ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=49875

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MALI: Mobilising in Defence of Migrants
By Soumaïla T. Diarra
BAMAKO (IPS) – The number of migrants being deported and returned to Mali is increasing. Civil society has mobilised to support the returnees.
ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=49832

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ENVIRONMENT-CONGO: Defence of Great Apes Begins With Children
By Arsène Severin *
BRAZZAVILLE, (IPS/IFEJ) – “But why do they kill gorillas, why do they trap them and put them in cages? One day, if i'm president, i'll stop all those who kill gorillas, chimpanzees and bonobos,” says 11-year-old Judicaëlle, a student at the Holy Sprit of Moungali School in Brazzaville.
ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=49845

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DEVELOPMENT: Filipino Communities Turn Trash Into Cash
TAGUIG CITY, Philippines (IPS/IFEJ) – Days after the New Year?s
Eve revelry dies down, expect colorful lanterns or wreaths to remain
hanging on the windows of many Filipino homes ? part of a tradition in
this South-east Asian country known to have the longest Yuletide
celebration in the world.
ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=49849

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URUGUAY: 'Dry Toilets' Provide Ecological Solution in Slums
By Inés Acosta
BARROS BLANCOS, Uruguay (IPS) – Marisabel's modest home had no plumbing, like the rest of the dwellings in this poor suburb on the outskirts of Montevideo, the capital of this small South American country.
ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=49834

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