The Week with IPS 01/03

	Pakistan’s Polio Campaign Runs Into Taliban Wall Ashfaq Yusufzai The Taliban are proving to be a huge stumbling block for Pakistan as the South Asian nation - one of only three remaining polio endemic countries in the world – tries to fight the crippling disease. Not even top Islamic scholars have been able to make a dent as militants continue to kill polio ... MORE > >
	Seedpods Worth More than Gold in Argentina’s Arid North Fabiana Frayssinet Tired of the drought driving away their men and killing their livestock, the women of Guanaco Sombriana, a town in northern Argentina, have found a new source of income by using the seedpods of native trees that up to now merely provided shade in this arid landscape. The football pitch is a ... MORE > >
	Libyan Highlanders Enforce Rule of Law Karlos Zurutuza Everybody in this mountain village is seemingly familiar with the new regulations. “People other than militiamen or policemen will be fined 500 dinars for carrying guns,” local resident Younis Walid tells IPS. ”If the offence is repeated a second time, the fine will be double; you do it a third ... MORE > >
	Democracy Gets an Electronic Boost Ashfaq Yusufzai Elections in Pakistan have long been marred by allegations of fraud, but now one of its provinces is hoping to give democracy a boost with the help of technology. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in the north of the country has given a thumbs up to the biometric voting machine. Using the biometric system in ... MORE > >
	Pakistani NGOs Fear New Year Constraints Irfan Ahmed A new policy by the Pakistani government to regulate foreign-funded non-governmental organisations (NGOs) has come in for sharp criticism from the social sector, with many saying it could stifle rights-based groups and affect crucial services provided to the needy. The government says it wants to ... MORE > >
	Cuba’s Reforms Don’t Believe in Tears Patricia Grogg The landscape is changing in Cuba’s cities and towns, with political slogans giving way to lighted signs advertising the best of local and international cuisine and air-conditioned lodgings – signs of an emerging private sector that was inconceivable until recently. As a result of the new ... MORE > >
	Barren Fields Recover From Taliban Ashfaq Yusufzai Ahmed Nawaz, a 55-year-old farmer in northwestern Pakistan’s Swat valley, rues the day the Taliban arrived in his beautiful land, known for its rolling mountains, lush fields and blossoming orchards. “The earth became barren,” he says. “Our agricultural income used to be enough for the entire ... MORE > >
	Palestinians Face a Route to Nowhere Pierre Klochendler The full moon sets; another dawn rises over Route 443. For over 40,000 Israeli residents and settlers commuting daily between Jerusalem and the Tel Aviv metropolitan area, it isn’t yet rush hour. For hundreds of Palestinian construction workers who reside along 443, it already is. To get to ... MORE > >
	West Papua Searches Far for Rights Catherine Wilson The indigenous struggle for liberation in West Papua on the western half of the island of New Guinea in the south-west Pacific, with the loss of thousands of lives, is far from ending. But, despite political uncertainties, a united coalition of pro-independence leaders has reignited hope of freedom ... MORE > >
	Farmers in Mozambique Fear Brazilian-Style Agriculture Amos Zacarias Rodolfo Razão, an elderly small farmer in Mozambique, obtained an official land usage certificate for his 10 hectares in 2010, but he has only been able to use seven. The rest was occupied by a South African company that grows soy, maize and beans on some 10,000 hectares in the northeast of the ... MORE > >
	Syrian Children Lose More Than Their Country Rebecca Murray As refugees from Syria continue to pour into Lebanon, the majority of children are not going to school, spurring concern that they will become a ‘lost generation’. Awad, 12, and her little sister Eman, 10, are among the vulnerable new arrivals. Having fled Damascus after their father was killed, ... MORE > >