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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.

POLITICS: Sri Lanka Locks Horns with UN over Experts? Panel
COLOMBO, Mar 10 (IPS) - The war of words between the Sri Lankan government and the United Nations has begun all over again, this time over the creation of an experts? panel on the island?s human rights record.


SINGAPORE: As Casino Opens, Watch for Its Social Impac...
SINGAPORE, Mar 10 (IPS) - An unfamiliar sight in Singapore ? that of vehicles with foreign licence plates filling the car park ? meets visitors at the basement of the city-state?s first casino, which opened nearly a month ago.


CAMBODIA: Rape Victims Need Better Protection from New ...
BANGKOK, Mar 9 (IPS) - Cambodia?s new penal code, which comes into force later this year, should be accompanied by stronger law enforcement measures if the country?s women and girls are to be better protected from rape, says the global rights lobby Amnesty International (AI).


MEDIA-NEPAL: Self-Censorship Creeping Up After Killings
KATHMANDU, Mar 9 (IPS) - The climate of fear that has been growing in this Himalayan country since the murder of two media entrepreneurs and other attacks on journalists may well push them to turn to more self-censorship.


DEVELOPMENT-SRI LANKA: Water Woes Fall on Women?s Shoulders
COLOMBO, Mar 9 (IPS) - As a wife of a rice farmer and mother of two children aged nine and two, Sanjeevani Bandara?s days are packed with chores. Yet while she used to be able to keep up with all she has to do in a day, this Sri Lankan mother now finds herself struggling to accomplish even the most basic tasks.


RIGHTS: Burmese Rape Survivors Speak Out
UNITED NATIONS, Mar 8 (IPS/TerraViva) - "Seven Burmese military soldiers attacked me and three of my friends," said Chang Chang, from the northern Kachin State of Burma.


THAILAND: Migrant Worker Law Hits Hurdle as 500,000 ?Dis...
BANGKOK, Mar 8 (IPS) - Thailand?s labour ministry is on the hunt for half a million migrant workers from neighbouring Burma who have gone underground rather than join a new foreign workers? programme, one that some critics have described as a "confusing" initiative.


POLITICS: Fiction of Marja as City Was U.S. Information...
WASHINGTON, Mar 8 (IPS) - For weeks, the U.S. public followed the biggest offensive of the Afghanistan War against what it was told was a "city of 80,000 people" as well as the logistical hub of the Taliban in that part of Helmand. That idea was a central element in the overall impression built up in February that Marja was a major strategic objective, more important than other district centres in Helmand.


INDIA: No Stopping Reserved Seats for Women in Parliament
NEW DELHI, Mar 8 (IPS) - With assured backing from India's main opposition groups, the ruling Congress party hopes to see voted through in the upper house of Parliament Monday a bill reserving 33 percent of seats in national and provincial legislatures for women.


Q&A: 11.8 Seconds That Broke Taboos for Women
KARACHI, Mar 8 (IPS) - Dressed in an abaya (long, loose gown worn by women to cover their dress) and a headscarf, Naseem Hameed cannot be recognised as she alights from a crowded, rickety public bus to reach her destination ? the sports stadium.


VIETNAM: War Movie with Peace Theme Seeks to Heal W...
HO CHI MINH CITY, Vietnam, Mar 5 (IPS) - A Vietnamese film that is vying for an Oscar this month offers a glimpse into how Vietnam and the United States are healing decades-old war wounds, as well as how that war still generates emotional debate today.


POLITICS: Sri Lanka, Britain Spar Again Over Tigers
COLOMBO, Mar 5 (IPS) - Tensions between Sri Lanka and Britain may have calmed down somewhat after the civil conflict ended in this South Asian country last year, but are rising again after the government accused London of aiding the defeated Tamil Tigers to regroup internationally.


RIGHTS-CHINA: For Dissident?s Wife, A Time of Waiting
BEIJING, Mar 5 (IPS) - Long before Liu Xiaobo, China?s most prominent political dissident and co- author of the Charter 08 call for political reform, was sentenced to 11 years in prison for "incitement to subvert state power," his wife, Liu Xia, had accepted his fate.


INDONESIA: U.S. Seeks to Resume Training of Controversi...
WASHINGTON, Mar 4 (IPS) - The administration of President Barack Obama hopes to resume U.S. training of an elite Indonesian military unit whose members have been convicted of gross human rights abuses in East Timor and elsewhere in the sprawling archipelago.


BURMA: Amid Threats, Women Dissidents Stick to Politica...
BANGKOK, Mar 4 (IPS) - While Aung San Suu Kyi remains the most widely-known woman suppressed for her political views in Burma, the jails in that military-ruled country continue to be filled by lesser-known women dissidents being held on a range of questionable charges.