COTE D’IVOIRE: Hesitant Steps Towards Normal Life

The prime minister of Côte d'Ivoire, Guillaume Soro, held his first cabinet meeting away from the Golf Hotel on Tuesday. The meeting - at the Prime Minister's Office in the Plateau d'Abidjan - was symbolic, intended to signal a return to normal life in a city that endured heavy fighting between Mar. 30 and the fall of former president Laurent Gbagbo on Apr. 11.

Headscarf Is Also a Scarf Over the Head

While Belgium’s politicians, academics, business leaders and feminists grapple with the concept and reality of a law banning headscarves in public institutions and beyond, two entrepreneurial women have joined forces to rescue the headscarf from the country’s political debate. Inge Rombauts and Fatima Rafiy run the exclusive hijab boutique Noor D’Izar, which offers women, "a fashionable solution regardless of their reasons for wanting to wear a headscarf," Inge Rombauts tells IPS.

No Homecoming for Bhutanese Refugees

A knock on the door of his home in Bhutan one midnight turned middle-level government official Balaram Paudyal into a fugitive overnight, after he managed to elude policemen arresting him for "anti-government activities", and then fled the country.

EGYPT: Silence Shrouds New Security Agency

In mid-March, Egypt's transitional government formally dissolved the hated State Security Investigations (SSI) apparatus, meeting a longstanding demand of the opposition. But in the month since, authorities have remained tight- lipped about the SSI's planned successor agency, raising fears that the transformation will be in name only.

Q&A: ‘Common Concern, Not Common Action’

The summit of the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) countries showed up both the strengths and the limitations of the caucus of emerging economies, says former Indian foreign secretary Shyam Saran in an interview to IPS.

CUBA: Raul Castro Proposes Change from Within Socialist System

Accompanied unexpectedly by Fidel Castro, his brother Raúl brought the sixth congress of Cuba's Communist Party (PCC) to a close Tuesday with a call to "change everything that should be changed," but without abandoning the socialist path taken on Apr. 16, 1961.

Uncertain Flows the Mekong

Countries around the lower Mekong have failed to reach a consensus on a controversial proposal that could see Laos build the first hydropower dam on this part of the vital river.

Colonial-Style Land Grabbing Back on the Table

The highly-contested Principles on Responsible Agricultural Investment (RAI), a set of priorities that peasants’ collectives and food rights groups have been battling for years, are back on the table this week, as the annual Conference on Land and Poverty opened at World Bank headquarters here Monday.

U.S. Denies It Is Trying to Undermine Assad

As anti-government protests in Syria showed no sign of abating, the U.S. State Department Monday denied that it was seeking the regime's ouster.

CAMBODIA: Cluster Bombs Cloud Prospects for Peace

Allegations that Thailand used controversial cluster munitions during recent border clashes with Cambodia have become the latest wedge driving tensions between the two neighbours.

MIDEAST: In the Dark Over Murder of Peace Activists

Palestinians are reeling from the double-murder of two pro-Palestinian peace activists over the last few weeks, one in the West Bank and one in Gaza, with many believing that Israeli intelligence had a hand in the grisly killings, even if indirectly.

AUSTRALIA: More Suicides, No Lessons

Supporters of asylum seekers here say that the government’s response to recent suicides in Australian immigration detention centres ignores what is already well-known: that indefinite, long-term detention in crowded facilities results in deaths.

BALKANS: Anger Over Sentencing Could Lead to Calm

Sentencing of two former generals ignited protests across Croatia over the weekend. Thousands of angry people protested in the streets of Zagreb and other major cities, claiming injustice had been done to heroes of the homeland war for independence that ended 16 years ago.

CUBA: Young People Look Abroad

While for their parents, leaving Cuba was a traumatic event because of the impossibility of returning, for younger generations, "moving abroad" is becoming more and more of a normal decision, just another alternative for the future.

Thousands Attend Syria Protesters’ Funerals

Tens of thousands of Syrians have attended the funerals for protesters killed in the central city of Homs, chanting slogans demanding the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad, the country’s president.

DEVELOPMENT: Libyan Investments in Caribbean Under Threat

Although located over 9,500 kilometres from the North African country of Libya, the turmoil there has not left the leaders of some small Caribbean nations unscathed.

MEXICO: Recurring Risks from Radioactive Materials

Mexico needs to take urgent steps to tighten oversight of the storage, handling and disposal of radioactive materials that can threaten the lives and health of its population, experts warn.

SYRIA: Unrest Spreads Further

Despite scarce official news reports emerging from Syria, information leaking out from activists on the ground describe the situation as deteriorating. While the government remains vague about events unfolding in the country, Friday prayers continue to ignite dissent that seems to be spreading to all social classes.

ISRAEL: Defenceless Against the Political Rocket

The 130,000 residents of this balmy Mediterranean city can breathe a sigh of relief. Their sky is now better protected against sporadic rocket attacks launched from the Gaza Strip, some 12 kilometres away.

MALAYSIA: Radiation Fears Fuel Protest

Fears of radioactive poisoning have fuelled a protest against an Australian mining company building the world’s largest rare earth processing plant outside China.

Financiers Lock Horns over Macro Policies While Millions Go Hungry

As weeks of what the International Monetary Fund's managing director Dominique Strauss-Kahn called "painful" negotiations over a host of macroeconomic policies drew to a close here Saturday, confusion over coherent strategies for sustainable economic recovery hangs thick in the air.