Green Party of Tennessee

PRAGUE, May 21 (IPS) - Despite the U.S. and Russia signing what was widely hailed as a landmark deal on nuclear arms reduction in Eastern Europe last month, the region remains hesitant to back full disarmament.

CAIRO, May 21 (IPS) - Although Egypt's many Sufi orders have traditionally been known for keeping a safe distance from politics, recent events suggest they are now closer than ever to the ruling regime.

JERUSALEM, May 21 (IPS) - In Israel and Palestine memory is a split matter, depending on which side of the map you come from. Especially this May, as Israeli and Palestinian leaders restart negotiating a border acceptable to their peoples.

LILONGWE, May 21 (IPS) - Rejecting the argument that the arrest and trial of Steven Monjeza and Tiwonge Chimbalanga amounted to a violation of their rights to freedom of conscience and expression as protected by Malawi's constitution, Blantyre chief resident magistrate Nyakwawa Usiwa Usiwa sentenced the two men to 14 years hard labour for "unnatural acts" and "gross indecency".

WASHINGTON, May 20 (IPS) - Thursday's formal accusation by South Korea that a North Korean torpedo sunk the warship Cheonan, killing 46 South Korean sailors, has set off a flurry of activity in Washington as politicians and foreign policy experts try to identify an appropriate U.S. response while balancing the need to maintain a stable relationship with China - the North's biggest sponsor.

BOGOTA, May 20 (IPS) - Colombian civil society organisations gathered more than two million signatures to ask Congress to hold a referendum on a constitutional amendment that would make access to water a fundamental human right.

WASHINGTON, May 20 (IPS) - With no major new initiatives on the agenda, President Felipe Calderón's state visit here this week appeared designed primarily to highlight increasingly close ties between the United States and Mexico despite growing frustrations on both sides of the border over immigration, economics and security cooperation.

VIENNA, May 20 (IPS) - Anti-death penalty activists meeting in the Austrian capital to discuss the eighth quinquennial report of the United Nations Secretary-General have hailed a worldwide trend towards total and universal abolition of capital punishment.

WASHINGTON, May 20 (IPS) - Cars promise mobility, and in a largely rural setting they provide it. But in an urbanising world, where more than half of us live in cities, there is an inherent conflict between the automobile and the city.

QUITO, May 20 (IPS) - "It sounds incredible, but it's just a matter of a letter that wasn't turned in on time," Ecuador's attorney general said in regards to the Financial Action Task Force decision to qualify the country as "posing a risk to the international financial system."

RIO DE JANEIRO, May 20 (IPS) - Although the European Union's financial bailout of Greece to avoid contagion of the crisis to other eurozone countries has had positive effects, South America is not ruling out collateral damage, especially from austerity measures demanded from Spain and Portugal and being considered for other EU countries.

BANGKOK, May 20 (IPS/Asia Media Forum) - As big a story as this week’s crackdown on anti-government protests in Thailand is the significant number of journalists killed or hurt, and media professionals and organisations threatened during the country’s most serious political conflict in years.

CAPE TOWN, May 20 (IPS) - Africa’s economic boom, driven by oil, has undermined the idea that democracy is a prerequisite for economic development on the continent.

TEHUACÁN, Mexico, May 20 (IPS/IFEJ) - Supporters of amaranth have been trying for decades to bring this millennia-old grain back from oblivion. Known for its high nutritional content, it is now being promoted as a way to help modern-day Mexico confront two of its dietary ills: malnutrition and obesity.

KARACHI, Pakistan, May 20 (IPS) - Talib Hussain, 29, became the sole breadwinner of his family of seven after his father suffered a stroke that left him half paralysed. Hussain brings home 4,000 Pakistani rupees (about 47 U.S. dollars) monthly, which he dutifully turns over to his mother.

GENEVA, May 20 (IPS) - The global economic crisis highlighted the necessity of transforming global economic governance. But least developed countries (LDCs) have little voice in this process. It is time they are allowed a seat at the meetings of the Group of 20 industrialised and emerging economies.

RAMALLAH, May 20 (IPS) - Israeli settlers are beginning to feel the bite of an economic boycott campaign launched by the Palestinian Authority (PA) against goods produced in the illegal Israeli settlements dotting the occupied West Bank.

MBABANE, May 20 (IPS) - An accomplished farmer who won the coveted Woman Farmer of the Year Award in 2008, Thabile Dlamini-Gooday wants to uplift the standard of other women in agriculture. She believes that if women farmers were to work together they could fight hunger and significantly reduce poverty among themselves.