SPECIAL REPORT-PART II: A World Addicted to Hunger

Famines are almost a regular occurrence in many countries, especially in Africa, and recognisable signs of distress emerge well before people start to die. Why, then, is the response to food emergencies consistently slow?

SPECIAL REPORT-PART I: A World Addicted to Hunger

In Ethiopia, some 12.6 million people require food aid, up from 11.3 million... Donors have pledged enough to meet about 82 percent of food needs, but only 54 percent has been delivered... Sound familiar? This alert was issued three years ago by the Famine Early Warning Systems Network, known as FEWS NET. Guess what? Ethiopia appeared again this year on FEWS NET's list of "current emergencies," alongside Somalia, Zimbabwe, and Chad.

HEALTH: Europeans Chicken Out

"Fifty percent discount!" screams a poster on top of a pile of unwanted roasted chickens. And there are more discounts around on chicken. Despite official guarantees that eating chicken is harmless, poultry sales have plummeted 70 percent in Italy.

RIGHTS-RELIGION: Fear or Fiat – the Limits of the Free Press

The cartoons issue has been argued as a debate between freedom of expression on one side and the responsibility of protecting religious sensibilities on the other. But each of these arguments needs to be examined a little more closely, because questions arise within each of these arguments, and not just between them.

/ARTS WEEKLY/FILM-ITALY: But There’s a Mafia Outside the Movies, Too

A spate of new films on the mafia comes with a health warning - the mafia may have gone off the news, but it is not gone yet.

SPECIAL REPORT: Crime and Maybe Punishment in Latin America

It has taken up to three decades, but some Latin American leaders suspected in politically motivated assassinations and death squad massacres may soon face justice following three unrelated developments in Chile, Colombia and Peru.

SPECIAL REPORT: Crime and Maybe Punishment in Latin America

It has taken up to three decades, but some Latin American leaders suspected in politically motivated assassinations and death squad massacres may soon face justice following three unrelated developments in Chile, Colombia and Peru.

/CORRECTED REPEAT*/SPECIAL REPORT: Quality Could Survive Shrinking Broadsheets

"The broadsheet is dead", Jim Chisholm, strategy advisor to the Paris-based World Association of Newspapers (WAN) declared in a report 'New Designs, New Formats' published last June.

INTERVIEW WITH FERNANDO SAVATER: “THE WORLD, HOW MUCH MORE JUST, HOW MUCH SAFER?”

Basque writer and philosopher Fernando Savater gave this interview shortly before the anniversary of the March 11, 2004, bomb attacks on three passenger trains in Madrid, Spain, which killed 192 people and wounded two thousand. Savater (born in San Sebastian, 1947) is a philosophy professor and the author of numerous essays, which have been translated into a dozen languages. He leads the Basta Ya movement, which represents the victims of terrorism in the Basque Country. The previous Spanish government, of Jose Maria Aznar, stated that there should be no discussion of the causes of terrorism because there could be no possible justification. What is certain is that there is still no internationally-accepted definition of terrorism today. Why is this important? I think there is a mistaken notion that all terrorism is equal. This is the same as saying that all fatal diseases are equal. But cancer is not the same as AIDS. They may both kill you, but they are not the same. Their causes must be understood for them to be treated. Similarly, and with no intention of justifying terrorism, the causes of terrorism must be understood. Ethnic terrorism is not the same as religious terrorism, or the terrorism of the poor against the rich.

CORRUPTION: An Evil Eye Opens Up Again

The departure of a Panamanian attorney-general has led to the review of a massive international money laundering case.

RELIGION: The Pope, By Deepak Chopra

For the past decade Deepak Chopra has been at the forefront of a major trend in holistic healing, combining ancient wisdom and modern science. The widely celebrated New Age guru talks with IPS about Pope John Paul II, arguably one of the most significant figures of the 20th century.

RELIGION: The Pope, By Deepak Chopra

For the past decade Deepak Chopra has been at the forefront of a major trend in holistic healing, combining ancient wisdom and modern science. The widely celebrated New Age guru talks with IPS about Pope John Paul II, arguably one of the most significant figures of the 20th century.

RIGHTS: Ship Crews Sail Into Stormy Political Weather

They are 1.2 million people, about the population of Estonia. These sailors handle 80 percent of world trade - the fuel we burn, the food we eat. And increasingly, they are treated like criminals.

SPECIAL REPORT: These Kings Leave No Heirs

Some ageing rulers seem destined to die among rumours of ill health and the nervous murmur of behind-the-scenes negotiations. From Portugal's Antonio de Oliveira Salazar to former U.S. president Woodrow Wilson, history is full of them.

SPECIAL REPORT-MEDIA: Alternative and Influential?

When you hear "alternative media," it is often alongside such words as "collective," "citizen-oriented," and "public." But what does it have to do with journalism? And how influential are groups like Indymedia, which recently had some of its computers seized?

INTERVIEW: HANAN ASHRAWI – “UNILATERAL DISENGAGEMENT PLAN IS A DIVERSION TACTIC”

As Israel\'s occupation of the West Bank and Gaza approaches its fifth decade, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is proposing a unilateral Israeli withdrawal from Gaza. The issue has created a contentious debate. In the meantime, people keep dying: since the beginning of the second Intifada in September 2000, around 3,500 Palestinians --including suicide attackers-- and 960 Israelis have died as a direct result of the conflict, according to Agence France Presse. Hanan Ashrawi, an outspoken Palestinian scholar from Ramallah, educated in Lebanon and the U.S., speaks with IPS about Sharon\'s move and Palestine\'s perspectives.

SPECIAL REPORT: Northern Laundromats for Southern Fat Cats

The U.S. Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) estimates that up to 1.5 trillion dollars is laundered annually around the world; much of this is laundered by rich institutions in rich countries, rather than by tropical offshore centres.

SPECIAL REPORT: Northern Laundromats for Southern Fat Cats

In the world of high finance, PEP is not a stimulant to keep you awake on the trading floor; it means "politically exposed person." Handling a PEP bank account is big, though risky business.

“IT IS AN ERROR TO BELIEVE THAT CHANGING THE US PRESIDENT AUTOMATICALLY MEANS A CHANGE IN THE US STAND ON THE MIDDLE EAST”: INTERVIEW WITH YASSER ABED RABBO

He is a member of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and co-author of the Geneva Accord, a negotiated but unofficial plan for a permanent peace between Israelis and Palestinians. According to the plan, in exchange for peace with Israel, the Palestinians would gain a non-militarised state and sovereignty over the Temple Mount (with Jewish access to the holy spot), while Israel would keep certain West Bank settlements, including many of the new Jewish communities erected on the Arab side of Jerusalem. Yasser Abed Rabbo talks with IPS about Gaza, the crisis in the Palestinian National Authority (PNA), and terrorism.

SPECIAL REPORT: The ‘Prop-Agenda’ at War

Contrary to what the U.S. government says, recently there has been an intensive use of propaganda, perhaps more deceitful than ever.

SPECIAL REPORT: The ‘Prop-Agenda’ at War

In an interview with Arabic broadcaster al-Jazeera, President Bush's national security adviser Condoleezza Rice said in 2001 that she did not want U.S. networks to show Osama bin Laden tapes because "it was not a matter of news, it was a matter of propaganda."