EGYPT: Military More Repressive Than Mubarak

Egyptians hoping for greater freedoms and less police brutality after the fall of president Hosni Mubarak say the military council that has ruled in his place has carried on the ex-dictator's brutal legacy, and in some cases exceeded it.

EGYPT: Former PM to Set Up New Cabinet

Egypt's ruling military council has reportedly asked a former prime minister, Kamal al-Ganzouri, to form a new cabinet. But there are no signs of a let-up in the anti-military demonstrations.

TURKEY: Erdogan Apologises to Kurds for Mass Killing

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has issued the first official apology for a bloody military campaign that killed thousands of Kurds in southeast Turkey in the late 1930s.

Belo Monte Dam and Hunters Endanger Amazon Turtles

Luiz Cardoso da Costa was horrified as he watched the Amazonian manatee, a large docile beast, bleeding out from the knife wound he had dealt it, yet greedily gulping down grasses as if eating could somehow stave off death.

CUBA: Violence against Women Out of the Closet

The story of Saúl, a violent husband, and Odalys, an abused wife, has been on Cuban TV screens for several weeks now, bringing the touchy and often silenced issue of violence against women into millions of homes. It may cause shock or repulsion, but few can escape the controversy or discussion.

MEXICO: Activists Want President and Drug Lords Tried for War Crimes

Activists are hoping that the International Criminal Court (ICC) will take up a case against Mexican President Felipe Calderón, government officials and drug traffickers and indict those responsible for the violence wracking the country. But this is likely to be a complex and lengthy process.

THE FUTURE OF THE WORLD TRADING SYSTEM

The relative dynamism of emerging economies over the past several years has meant that these countries, many of them in Asia, have come to play an ever-growing role in the world and to account for a larger share of economic activity. Adjusting politically and organisationally to shifts in economic power takes time. As we work towards a new equilibrium in international cooperation, new relationships and leadership patterns will inevitably emerge, just as they have throughout history.

Aid Not Effectively Reaching Africa’s Poor

Kenyan tea and coffee farmers remain disgruntled about the minimal profits they make selling their cash crops, the country’s leading foreign currency earners, as the government receives millions in funding for training and subsidies that most of these farmers are yet to see materialise.

CLIMATE CHANGE: Shale Gas Emerges as a Burning Issue

The issue seems rather similar to that of unconventional oil and has already sparked a major controversy in the West. But its implications for the debate on climate change are hardly known in countries of the Global South.

Q&A: ‘Close to Breaking Point’

Who speaks for the Chinese people? With the advent of the blogosphere in China, the Communist party is no longer the uncontested spokesperson for the Chinese nation. A myriad of voices are vying for space and attention, but most of those, according to one of the country's most famous bloggers Wang Xiaofeng, are just "letting off steam" and indulging a penchant for rant long suppressed in traditional media by the party's ruthless censors.

GHANA: Tropical Ulcer Persists Despite Affordable Solutions

For the past 10 years, Buruli ulcer has been eating Benjamin Essel’s leg. The skin above his ankle is totally gone, and a swollen, pulpy and reddish wound rises almost up to his knee and wraps around his calf. Even still, this is an improvement over recent years.

US-BAHRAIN: Obama Praises Report as Groups Urge Arms Delay

The administration of President Barack Obama has praised a damning report issued Wednesday in Manama on Bahrain's crackdown on the democracy movement earlier this year, as human rights groups called on Washington to further delay delivery of a pending 53-million-dollar arms package to the kingdom.

MEXICO: Deadly Cocktail of Sexual Violence and Impunity

Sexual violence against women in Mexico is on the rise, alongside the escalation of violence between police and soldiers and the drug cartels, women's rights activists warn.

ARGENTINA: Women Build New Opportunities in Cooperatives

Forged in the 2001-2002 social and economic crisis, cooperatives in Argentina are becoming a fast track to women's participation in what were traditionally regarded as male spheres.

LATIN AMERICA: How to Prevent ‘Femicide’

Vanina Alderete, an 18-year-old from Argentina, is a survivor of a particularly heinous case of domestic violence: when she was 11, her father killed her mother and her two little brothers and left her seriously injured.

Bahrain Rights Report Released Amid Clashes

The head of a special commission in Bahrain has said authorities used torture and excessive force against detainees arrested in a crackdown earlier this year.

PAKISTAN: At the Butt of a Joke

The Butts of Punjab have become the butt of jokes after Pakistan’s telecom authorities moved to ban "obscene" content on short messaging service (SMS) texts over mobile phones.

EGYPT: It’s January Again in Tahrir Square

Days of clashes between protesters and security forces culminated on Tuesday evening in what was estimated to be a million-man rally in Cairo's Tahrir Square to demand an end to military rule. The new political crisis has prompted fears that Egypt's first post-Mubarak parliamentary polls, slated to begin only five days from now, could be called off.

Millions Stand to Benefit from Farmers’ Co-ops

The 925 million people who went hungry in 2010 are just one facet of an ever-worsening food security crisis. Both food producers and consumers face the consequences of price volatility and unsustainable agricultural practices - challenges that leave leaders on local and global levels alike seeking sustainable models for agriculture.

Q&A: Busan Beckons With New Promise

For a start, stop calling it "aid", Brian Atwood, chair of the Development Assistance Committee at the OECD, tells IPS.

Argentina Inundated with E-Waste

The shop is filled to bursting with buyers. One by one, customers follow a salesperson to one of a row of booths where they are provided with a wealth of information on the mobile phones for sale. But nobody tells them what to do with the old phones they are replacing.