Guns and Roses: IPS's Reporting On Global Armed Conflicts and Resolution Efforts / IPS Inter Press Service

IPS Correspondent Gareth Porter talks to Real News.

The U.S. military establishment believed they could easily pressure President Obama to back down on his pledge to withdraw troops from Iraq within 16 months. Having found Obama unconvinced by their argument, they have now launched a campaign in Washington to blame Obama’s withdrawal policy for any future instability in Iraq.

POLITICS: U.S. Berated for Shielding Israel on Gaza Killings
By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS - A U.S. decision to stall Security Council action against Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas for war crimes during the 22-day conflict in Gaza last December has come under heavy fire both from inside and outside the United Nations.
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DR-CONGO: Rights Groups Urge U.N. to Rein in Army
By Matthew Berger
WASHINGTON - U.N.-supported military operations in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo have had an "unacceptable" cost for the civilian population, said a coalition of rights groups Tuesday.
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RIGHTS-PERU: Gov't Seeks Legal Shield for Security Forces
By Ángel Páez
LIMA - The Peruvian government has moved to protect the armed forces and police against investigations for crimes committed in the line of duty, especially in areas convulsed by social protests or where remnants of the Maoist Sendero Luminoso (Shining Path) guerrillas are still active.
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MIDEAST: Security Council Urged to Take Up Gaza War
By Eli Clifton
WASHINGTON - Pressure has been building on the U.N. Security Council to address the impact of the Gaza war on civilians in advance of its meeting Wednesday to discuss the Middle East.
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U.S.: Pro-War Officials Play Up Taliban-al Qaeda Ties
Analysis by Gareth Porter*
WASHINGTON - U.S. national security officials, concerned that President Barack Obama might be abandoning the strategy of full-fledged counterinsurgency war in Afghanistan, are claiming new intelligence assessments suggesting that al Qaeda would be allowed to return to Afghanistan in the event of a Taliban victory.
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PHILIPPINES: Women in Troubled South Bear Heavy Burden of Conflict
By Prime Sarmiento
MANILA - For Father Eduardo Vasquez, setting up 'Bahay Kalinga’ (House of Care) in the province of Maguindanao is one way of deepening his mission.
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POLITICS: U.N. Infighting Threatens to Upstage Afghan War
By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS - The increasingly deadly battle between Western military forces and Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan is on the verge of being upstaged by a growing political brawl between two senior U.N. officials overseeing the battle-ravaged South Asian nation.
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POLITICS: NGOs Hold Arms Exporters to Account for Abuses
By Suzanne Hoeksema
UNITED NATIONS - With 2,000 people dying daily in armed violence fuelled by irresponsible arms transfers, talks to create an international treaty regulating these weapons can no longer be delayed, says a coalition of NGOs in a new report "Dying for Action" published Wednesday.
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POLITICS-US: Obama Weighs Options as Afghan War Enters Ninth Year
Analysis by Jim Lobe*
WASHINGTON - On the eighth anniversary of the launch of U.S. military operations in Afghanistan, President Barack Obama spent a good part of Wednesday deliberating with his top advisers on what is likely to be one of the most momentous decisions of his tenure: the future of U.S. involvement in that war.
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SUDAN: Darfur's Misery Far from Over, Watchdog Groups Say
By Zach Rosenberg
WASHINGTON - Details of the abuse of civilians in Darfur and southern Sudan, and reports of human rights violations committed by government officials, are emerging on the eve of a major conference in Moscow where NGOs, governments and intergovernmental organisations will discuss the overall situation in Sudan.
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U.S.: Public Sceptical and Hawkish on Iran
By Jim Lobe
WASHINGTON - Despite strong support for diplomatic engagement with Iran, most U.S. citizens believe such efforts will ultimately fail and that Washington should be prepared to use military force to prevent Tehran from obtaining a nuclear weapon, according to a new poll released here Tuesday by the Pew Research Centre for the People and the Press.
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MIGRATION: Remittances Also Drive Political Change
By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS - The world's 200 million international migrants have traditionally been viewed in terms of dollars and cents: how much hard currency have they remitted to their home countries?
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COLOMBIA: Talking About Peace in the Middle of War
By Helda Martínez *
BOGOTA - Organisations representing sectors of the Colombian population that have suffered from four decades of armed conflict, like indigenous and black communities, shared their experiences over the weekend in the "World Peace Summit", which also drew prominent international experts on Latin America.
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POLITICS: Marching Round the World for Peace
By Tito Drago
MADRID - Activists from many nations will set out from New Zealand Saturday on a march for peace and non-violence that will cover more than 90 countries on five continents, winding up on Jan. 2 at the foot of Mount Aconcagua, in western Argentina.
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SOMALIA: President Calls for More Aid in U.S. Visit
By Zach Rosenberg and Jim Lobe
WASHINGTON - Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, the leader of Somalia's beleaguered Transitional Federal Government (TFG), appealed here this week for increased U.S. and international security and humanitarian assistance for his efforts to defeat hard-line Islamist rebels and reconstruct his war-torn nation.
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The Human Security Report of 2005 identified a fall in the number of armed conflicts since the end of the Cold War. But the evidence examined in the 2008 edition of the Peace and Conflict report shows that the decline has stopped. Armed conflicts -- wars, civil wars, revolts, coups, genocides, ethnic and political violence, and terrorism worldwide -- are flaring up across the world. Iraq, Israel and Palestine, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Darfur, South Ossetia, Colombia...the list of conflict-zones is long. And the poor, women, and children, are the hardest hit. With focus on human rights and development, IPS examines armed conflicts around the world and the efforts to stop them.