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IPS, civil society's leading news agency, is an independent voice from the South and for development, delving into globalisation for the stories underneath.

DISARMAMENT: Japan Pushes for Progress in U.S. Nuclear R...
BERLIN, Mar 17 (IPS) - Japanese parliamentarians and activists pin high hopes on the hotly debated and much anticipated U.S. Nuclear Posture Review (NPR) to which the Barack Obama administration is reported to be giving finishing touches.


PAKISTAN: In More Ways Than One, Bollywood Dancing Crea...
KARACHI, Pakistan, Mar 17 (IPS) - Saleha Firdaus, a mother of two teenage children, has been moving to the Bollywood beat at a dance studio for over a year now and "loves every moment" of this personal time. For her part, 22-year-old Maheen Jafri was a "bedroom dancer" until she discovered a Bollywood and hip-hop dance studio and "shed my inhibitions totally."


POLITICS: Afghanistan Spy Contract Goes Sour for Pentag...
WASHINGTON, Mar 16 (IPS) - Mike Furlong, a top Pentagon official, is alleged to have run a covert network of contractors to supply information for drone strikes and assassinations in Afghanistan and Pakistan for the U.S. government.


THAILAND: With Blood Spilt, Political Wounds Far from ...
BANGKOK, Mar 16 (IPS) - A nearly four-kilometre arc of road that cuts through the historic part of the Thai capital, the site of the largest anti-government protests the country has seen in years, has brought into sharp relief a political wound that is far from being healed in this kingdom.


RIGHTS-BAHRAIN: Weak Laws Let Rapists Off the Hook
MANAMA, Mar 16 (IPS) - Cunning rapists in Bahrain can avoid victimising virgins so they could escape the maximum penalty provided by law, and those who force themselves on young girls can evade punishment by promising to marry their victims.


SRI LANKA: Managing Overseas Workers A Tough Balancing Act
COLOMBO, Mar 16 (IPS) - The extent of Sri Lanka?s dependence on its one million citizens who work abroad can be gauged from officials who gleefully count the dollars that come in to sustain the country?s economy.


POLITICS: Policy Battle over Afghan Peace Talks Intensi...
WASHINGTON, Mar 15 (IPS) - The struggle within the Barack Obama administration over Afghanistan policy entered a new phase when the president suggested at a meeting of his "war cabinet" Friday that it might be time to start negotiations with the Taliban, according to a report in the New York Times Saturday.


ENVIRONMENT-INDIA: All Eyes on Forest Protection Body
KOTAGIRI, NILGIRI MOUNTAINS, India, Mar 15 (IPS) - Seemingly unstoppable development has made a mockery of the protected status of this southern Indian region, which houses vast biodiversity and some of the finest examples of moist deciduous and tropical forests.


MALAYSIA: Creation of Commercial Hospital Wings a Mista...
KUALA LUMPUR, Mar 15 (IPS) - A Malaysian government scheme to create commercial ?private wings? in major government hospitals has come under fire from critics, who say it will add to the burden of people who need public healthcare the most.


THAILAND: In Convoys of Red, Rural Masses Stage Histo...
BANGKOK, Mar 14 (IPS) - An unprecedented show of force by men and women from Thailand?s rural hinterland was on display over the weekend as they poured into Bangkok in the tens of thousands to stake a claim on having a voice in shaping this South-east Asian kingdom?s national agenda.


ENVIRONMENT-INDIA: Law on Forest Rights Fails to Deliver
BHUBANESWAR, India, Mar 13 (IPS) - A four-year-old landmark law that was supposed to bring profound changes in the lives of India?s tribal and forest-dwelling peoples has failed to deliver on that promise.


PHILIPPINES: Reproductive Health Tests Candidates? Poli...
MANILA, Mar 12 (IPS) - Filipino voters who have yet to make up their minds about their choice for their next president are being advised: look at each aspirant?s stance on reproductive health to help them gauge the candidate?s leadership mettle and political guts.


CHINA: Binge-drinking Culture Turning from Fun to Lethal
BEIJING, Mar 12 (IPS) - After Chen Lusheng, a police sergeant from the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen, died in December after an off-duty night of heavy drinking with local officials, his superiors tried to have him designated a "martyr" who "died in the line of duty," so that his family would receive greater compensation.


POLITICS: Sri Lanka Garners Support Against U.N. Probe
UNITED NATIONS, Mar 11 (IPS) - Sri Lanka, which won a grueling decades-long battle against one of the world's most ferocious terrorist organisations last May, has scored a diplomatic victory in its ongoing war of words with the United Nations.


Q&A: Equality Is Feminism
UNITED NATIONS, Mar 11 (IPS/TerraViva) - "I think that Islam has been misinterpreted. No Islamic law says violate women's rights and repress women," says Nobel Peace Prize laureate Shirin Ebadi. "Democracy, human rights and women leadership are absolutely not hostile to the Islamic doctrine." And women in Iran are well aware of that, she says.