IPS pick: 14 June 2013

Pressure Building for U.S. to Remove Cuba from 'Terror Sponsor' List  Jared Metzker  Experts here are stepping up calls for the U.S. government to remove Cuba from an official list of "state sponsors of terrorism", arguing that the country's presence on the list is anachronistic and makes neither legal nor political sense. The calls come just weeks after the U.S. State ... MORE > >
	Coming Out in Droves Against Drones  Ashfaq Yusufzai  Though the constant hum of unmanned aerial vehicles flying overhead makes a strong case for staying indoors, residents of Pakistan’s North Waziristan Agency are emerging in droves from their humble homes, some no bigger than huts constructed from mud and stones. They have come out to protest the ... MORE > >
	‘Happy Prostitutes’ AIDS Campaign Sparks Debate  Fabiana Frayssinet  Happiness, the subject of endless philosophical discussions, has now become the focus of controversy in an HIV/AIDS prevention campaign aimed at prostitutes in Brazil. The campaign chief has been booted out and a further question has been raised: What are the limits of popular participation in the ... MORE > >
	Zanzibar’s Encroaching Ocean Means Less Water  Erick Kabendera  Khadija Komboani’s nearest well is filled with salt water thanks to the rising sea around Tanzania’s Indian Ocean island of Zanzibar. And until recently, the 36-year-old mother of 12 from Nungwi village in Unguja on the northernmost part of Zanzibar, spent most of her day walking to her nearest ... MORE > >
	Cairo’s Poor Convert Kitchen Waste Into Fuel Savings  Cam McGrath  The bio-gas digester on the roof of Hussein Farag's apartment in one of Cairo's poorest districts provides a daily supply of cooking gas produced from the kitchen waste his family would otherwise discard in plastic bags or empty into the clogged sewer below his building. Constructed of two large ...MORE > >
	Survivors Reluctant to Testify in New Genocide Trial  Louisa Reynolds  Fear and mistrust reign in Santa María Nebaj. The people of this Maya Ixil indigenous town in the highlands of northwestern Guatemala are worried about intimidation attempts to keep them from testifying again in a retrial of former dictator Efraín Ríos Montt. Worry began to spread in the town ...MORE > >
	Indian Women Talk About Sex – in Cyberspace  Ranjita Biswas  When 30-year-old Rita Datta (not her real name) decided on a whim to take a computer literacy course, she fell through the metaphoric looking glass into a virtual reality where the most taboo subject in India was transformed into the most simple and natural topic of conversation: sex. A ... MORE > >
	The Girl Who Couldn’t Herd Goats Now Saves Lives  Miriam Gathigah  When she was nine years old, Jane Meriwas, a Samburu from the Kipsing Plains in Kenya’s Rift Valley region, was considered of no use by her father. After all, nine of his goats had been eaten by hyenas under her watch. But there was a chance that she could still redeem herself by being a second, ...MORE > >
	The Future of the Pacific Ocean Hangs in the Balance  Catherine Wilson  The immense scale of the Pacific Ocean, at 165 million square kilometres, inspires awe and fascination, but for those who inhabit the 22 Pacific island countries and territories, it is the very source of life. Without it, livelihoods and economies would collapse, hunger and ill-health would become ... MORE > >
	First Prisoners' Trade Union Defends Rights in Argentina  Marcela Valente  The first prisoners’ union in Argentina, a country with a strong organised labour tradition, fights for the rights of inmates. "No one had never fought before for anything like this in here," 33-year-old inmate Gustavo Moreno, serving a 22-year sentence in the Complejo Penitenciario Federal in ...MORE > >
	In Southern Tunisia, Pollution No Longer Swept Under the Rug  Justin Hyatt  The story of Gabès and the local phosphate industry follows a plot that is all too familiar: an underdeveloped town located in an industrial region boasts one major lucrative industry with high output and export values, but the local population and surroundings experience alarming levels of illness ... MORE > >
Read more IPS reporting here.