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Monday, March 22, 2010 01:37 GMT

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IRAN: THEOCRATIC REGIME SURVIVES THROUGH REPRESSION
Elisabetta Zamparutti

IPS COLUMNIST SERVICE, MARCH 2010

The latest report of Hands Off Cain documents no fewer than 346 executions in Iran in 2008, a figure far exceeded by the total for 2009, though the real numbers might even be even higher, writes Elisabetta Zamparutti, a deputy in Italian parliament and treasurer of the international organisation againts death penalty Hands Off Cain.

COLOMBIA - BODY COUNT OF SLAIN JOURNALISTS
Ignacio Gomez

IPS COLUMNIST SERVICE, MARCH 2010

On February 16, while addressing representatives of the the Foundation for the Freedom of the Press of Colombia and the Committee for the Protection of Journalists (CPJ) of New York, Colombian President Alvaro Uribe cited his own government as the only one that had succeeded in reducing to near zero the number of journalists assassinated per year and concluded that this feat made him one of the leading defenders of the freedom of the press in his nation's history, writes Ignacio Gomez, president of the Foundation for the Freedom of the Press of Columbia and recipient of the 2002 World Press Freedom Prize of the Committee for the Protection of Journalists.

A WIN-WIN PLAN FOR ICELAND, BRITAIN AND THE NETHERLANDS
Hazel Henderson

IPS COLUMNIST SERVICE, MARCH 2010

Icelanders, on March 6, 2010, rejected by 90% the referendum on paying $5.3 billion (45% of national output in 2009) of odious debt incurred by their privatized bank Icesave. This opens the way for a plan proposed by Dutch businessman/philanthropist Gijs Graafland's Planck Foundation. This ingenious, well-researched Energy for Debt plan invites private and public investors to develop Iceland's boundless geothermal energy and send its electricity to Britain and the Netherlands via a high-voltage DC transmission line, writes Hazel Henderson, author of Ethical Markets: Growing the Green Economy and co-developer with the Calvert Group of the Calvert-Henderson Quality of Life Indicators.

MOSCOW AND HAVANA: FRIENDS FOREVER?
Leonardo Padura

IPS COLUMNIST SERVICE, MARCH 2010

In recent years, Moscow has initiated a rapprochement with Cuba, urged by Russian prime minister Vladimir Putin, who has sought to revive Russian pride and greatness and its prominence on the political map. Cuba, crippled by a tightening US embargo and long in need of all the political, economic, and trade support it can get, responded enthusiastically, writes Leonardo Padura Fuentes, a Cuban writer and journalist whose most recent work is The Man Who Loved Dogs, featuring Leon Trotsky and his assassin Ramon Mercader as central characters.

THE DECLINE OF SOCIAL DEMOCRACY
Ignacio Ramonet

IPS COLUMNIST SERVICE, MARCH 2010

Because of what it has abandoned, retracted, and renounced, European social democracy today finds itself dragged towards the grave, writes Ignacio Ramonet, editor of Le Monde Diplomatique in Spanish.

TURKEY: DEEPENING DEMOCRACY OR NEW AUTHORITARIANISM?
Ilter Turan

IPS COLUMNIST SERVICE, MARCH 2010

On February 25, Turkish president Abdullah Gul invited the prime minister and chief of general staff for talks to reduce political tensions sparked by judicial investigations into a number of alleged military plans to overthrow the elected government, writes Ilter Turan, professor of political science and former president of Istanbul Bilgi University.

CHINA'S NEOCOLONIALISM
Walden Bello

IPS COLUMNIST SERVICE, MARCH 2010

On January 1, 2010, the China-Asean Free Trade Area (Cafta) went into effect. Touted as the world’s biggest Free Trade Area, CAFTA is billed as having 1.7 billion consumers, with a combined gross domestic product of $ 5,93 trillion and total trade of $ 1.3 trillion, writes Walden Bello, member of the House of Representatives of the Philippines, president of the Freedom from Debt Coalition, and senior analyst at Focus on the Global South.

THE EU MUST ACT NOW ON GLOBAL CRISIS
Mario Soares

IPS COLUMNIST SERVICE, MARCH 2010

If the EU continues to avoid formulating a coherent response to the global crisis, the coming decade will be very hard. The path to decline will lie open before us and our freedoms and social advances will be in jeopardy, writes Mario Soares, ex-president and ex-prime minister of Portugal.

PROGRESS SLOW ON WOMEN'S RIGHTS
Ines Alberdi

IPS COLUMNIST SERVICE, MARCH 2010

Today, 15 years after the Fourth UN World Conference on Women, women are still outnumbered four-to-one in legislatures around the world. The proportion of women in vulnerable sectors of employment is increasing in almost all parts of the developing world, reaching 85 percent in some regions. Women's wages still lag behind those of men. In addition, millions of women endure some form of gender-based violence, often on a daily basis, writes Ines Alberdi, Executive Director of the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM).

THE RIGHTS OF MOTHER EARTH
Leonardo Boff

IPS COLUMNIST SERVICE, FEBRUARY 2010

For centuries we have lived under the jurisdiction of nation states and their forms of sovereignty and autonomy. But as problems are growing increasingly global, this political model is proving incapable of offering the solutions needed by humanity and the planet, writes Leonardo Boff, a Brazilian theologian, member of the Earth Charter Initiative, and professor emeritus of ethics at the University of Rio de Janiero.

GLOBAL CRISIS: THE EU MUST ACT NOW
Mario Soares

IPS COLUMNIST SERVICE, FEBRUARY 2010

If the EU continues to avoid formulating a coherent response to the global crisis, the coming decade will be very hard. The path to decline will lie open before us and our freedoms and social advances will be in jeopardy, writes Mario Soares, ex-president and ex-prime minister of Portugal.

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RIGHTS: JSOC Interests Snag Plan to Free Afghan Detainees

POLITICS-NEPAL: Statesman’s Death Leaves Worries About Peace Process

POLITICS-SUDAN: African Leaders Call for Peaceful Elections

ECONOMY: Greek Crisis Impacts the Balkans

U.S.: Families Sue Over Guantanamo Deaths

NIGERIA: Acting President Consolidates Power Amid Unrest

CLIMATE CHANGE: A Year On, Little Change in Political Climate

LATIN AMERICA: Still a Long Way to Go, for Black Women

ZAMBIA: School Policy for Teen Mothers a Partial Success

KENYA: Trying to Rebuild Communities After Floods

ELECCIONES-COLOMBIA: Noemí Sanín en el abanico presidencial

AFGANISTÁN: Espías privados al servicio del Pentágono – Parte 1

SALUD-KENIA: Ley plantea polémica sobre genéricos

SALUD-ÁFRICA: Sida más letal que las bombas

ELECCIONES-IRAQ: Partidos laicos llevan la delantera

GRANDS LACS : Les Chinois appréciés et craints

COMMERCE-MALI : Le karité, le carnet d’épargne des femmes du Sahel

KENYA: L’amendement constitutionnel envisagé retarde les droits des femmes

SENEGAL : L’irrigation locale, le levier du développement rural

DROITS-CAMEROUN : Le travail des enfants en progression

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