US: Deported for Running a Red Light

A government programme designed to prosecute serious criminals is instead deporting people who received traffic tickets and committed other minor offences, according to immigration rights advocacy groups.

DEVELOPMENT-AUSTRALIA: It’s Not Just About More, But Better, Aid

Australia’s foreign aid budget is likely to double by 2015, but civil society groups say this is far from enough if it is to keep to its "fair share" of commitments to poorer countries.

MIDEAST: Barriers Rise Between Ramadan Gatherings

For seven years Majda Abdul Qader Sheikh, 38, has not been allowed to visit the home of her parents, just a few hundred metres from her house.

POLITICS-INDIA: In Kashmir, Tensions Put Life on Hold

The doctors at the hospital that Khalida Begum’s husband brought her to in the frontier district of Kupwara knew she was in a dangerous state. They thus recommended that she be transferred soonest to the maternity hospital here in Srinagar, where she was sure to receive far better care.

Ruling Against US Access to Bases Helps Ease Colombia’s Isolation

When the Colombian government announced in November that it had reached a deal to give the U.S. armed forces access to seven military bases, the news provoked surprise and protests, like when an unfair clause is discovered in a contract that was blindly signed.

Need and Risks Never Higher for Humanitarian Work

The United Nations and other relief organisations will observe World Humanitarian Day Thursday amid steadily increasing attacks on aid workers.

PERU: Woman Candidate Breathes New Life into Left

The campaign for the October municipal elections in Peru has brought new hope to the badly weakened left, in the form of Susana Villarán, who has shot up from the "other candidates" category to third in the polls in the race for the mayor's office in Lima.

BURMA: U.S. Support Boosts Calls for U.N. War Crimes Inquiry

An international campaign seeking a war crimes inquiry into the alleged systematic abuses by Burma’s military regime finally has a strong ally in U.S. President Barack Obama.

US: Standing Up for Homeless Vets at Stand Downs

More than 400 homeless veterans from across northern California relaxed in comfort at the Alameda County Fairgrounds in Pleasanton.

SOUTHERN AFRICA: Rallying Around Mugabe While Economic Unity Lags

Southern African leaders used the 30th Southern African Development Community (SADC) summit of government leaders to rally around Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe’s land seizures, in a move that undermines regionalism, while lamenting their own failure to implement their decisions on regional economic integration.

MIDEAST: Uprooted Villagers Hold Fast During Ramadan

On the eve of the start of Ramadan last week, Israeli police demolished the Bedouin village of al-Araqib in the Negev desert. It was the third time within two weeks that the village had been razed.

BALKANS: Serbia Prepares a New Case Over Kosovo

Serbia is preparing to go before the United Nations next month to renew negotiations over the future of Kosovo, its southern breakaway province that has declared independence and been recognised by a number of countries.

DEVELOPMENT: China Wants Business with Latin America

China, now the world’s second largest economy with a ferocious appetite for resources, is aggressively strengthening relations with Latin American countries, but this has not been without roadblocks.

INDIA: Moving On to a ‘Backward’ Step

Strident voices are rising against the Indian coalition government's move to identify people by their caste background in the ongoing census.

CUBA-US: Tourism and ‘Cuban Five’ Top Agenda

Cuba is getting ready to welcome tourists from the United States, in the event that the ban on travel by U.S. citizens to this Caribbean island nation is lifted, as well as clamouring more loudly for a presidential pardon for the five Cuban agents who have spent the last 12 years in U.S. prisons.

Q&A: “We Must Move from a Masculine to a Feminine Economy”

It is necessary to move from a "masculine" economy based on competition and a win-lose mentality to a "feminine" win-win economy based on the concept of collaboration, says writer Rose Marie Muraro, one of the pioneers of Brazil's feminist movement.

U.S. Journalist To Be Deported From Turkey

Jake Hess, a U.S. freelance journalist who also wrote for IPS on Kurdish rights within Turkey, is to be deported following a government order.

MIDEAST: Towards ‘Deja vu All Over Again’

"If you come to a fork in the road, take it." Sometimes, the nonsensical quote of the legendary New York Yankees baseball catcher Yogi Berra has a real message. It can pointedly be applied to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on peace with the Palestinians.

MEXICO: Supreme Court Upholds Non-Discrimination Against Gays

In the last two weeks, Mexico's Supreme Court has taken two fundamental steps in recognising the rights of gays and lesbians. On Monday, it voted to uphold a Mexico City law that allows same-sex couples to adopt.

Arab-Israeli Orchestra Spreads Message of Peace in Latin America

"The West-Eastern Divan Orchestra has proved that music can break down barriers previously considered insurmountable," its Argentine-Israeli conductor, Daniel Barenboim, told IPS on a visit to Ecuador.

Q&A: ‘Corruption Is an Extraordinary Danger’

"I still view corruption as an extraordinary danger" to the country, as its "corrosive power" makes it a matter of "national security," said Esteban Morales, who was expelled from the Cuban Communist Party (PCC) after publishing an article warning of its pervasive effects.