IPS Weekly Update April 25 2013

	Spring Brings Worse for Shias  Cam McGrath  The mob that surrounded the home of Mohamed Nour, an Egyptian Shia living in Cairo’s Bab El-Shaariya district, claimed it was on a mission to “inoculate” Egypt against Shia religious beliefs. Without intervention, Shia doctrine would spread across Egypt “like a cancer,” they had warned. Born a ... MORE > >
	Rural Colombia Takes Its Place on the Agenda  Helda Martínez  International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) initiatives working to overcome poverty and improve food security in the Colombian countryside can make a positive contribution to government efforts to tackle some of the most neglected problems facing this South American country. "Rural ...MORE > >
	Come Grab Our Land  Monde Kingsley Nfor  Bordered by a rubber plantation in the west, a forestry plantation in the east and a palm oil farm in the south, the 18 local communities that live in Ocean Division, southern Cameroon, have had an uphill struggle for the rights to their land. In 2008, the government leased much of their ... MORE > >
	Krill Super-Trawlers Pushing Penguins Toward Extinction  Stephen Leahy  Everyone loves penguins, but few will know that Thursday is World Penguin Day. Fewer still are those who know penguins are threatened with extinction by climate change and giant fishing trawlers from Europe and Asia stalking the oceans around Antarctica. Penguins are a protected species, but the ...MORE > >
	U.S. Regulator Lodges “Environmental Objections” to Keystone Plan  Carey L. Biron  Advocacy groups here are applauding the publication of new government concerns, formally expressed Monday by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), over a recent assessment of the environmental impact of a major oil pipeline that would run between Canada and the U.S. Gulf Coast. Because ... MORE > >
	Q&A: "The Challenge in Venezuela Is to Consolidate Democracy"  Fabiola Ortiz  The challenge for Venezuela is to strengthen democracy, and for its new president, Nicolás Maduro, it is to overcome a potential recall referendum and to further the interests of his political supporters, Marcelo Serpa, of the Latin American Association of Election Campaign Researchers (ALICE), ...MORE > >
Mining and Logging Companies “Leaving Chile without Water”  Marianela Jarroud  More than 100 environmental, social and indigenous organisations protested Monday in the Chilean capital to demand that the state regain control over the management of water, which was privatised by the dictatorship in 1981. More than 6,000 people took part in the peaceful, colourful “great ... MORE > >
	Israeli Cloud Hovers Over Green Energy  Mel Frykberg  A quiet diplomatic war is being waged by several European governments against the Israeli authorities, specifically the Israeli Civil Administration which controls the Israeli occupied West Bank. At stake is the destruction of a humanitarian project funded by a number of European governments, ...MORE > >
	Somali Women Cashing in on Business  Abdurrahman Warsameh  In the Hamarweyne market, Mogadishu's largest, 24-year-old Maryama Yunis is finding success with her tiny cosmetic store. The young Somali entrepreneur has been in business for two years, selling everything from soaps and shampoos to lipsticks and eyeliners, and now she's turning a decent ... MORE > >
	Wind Brings Light to Somaliland  Ed McKenna  A wind turbine, situated some 20 kilometres outside of Somaliland’s capital Hargeisa, has become a significant totem of the country’s changing energy landscape. The breakaway semi-autonomous region that was once part of Somalia has struggled to develop its economy despite dilapidated energy ...MORE > >