IPS Inter Press Service

Abdu Rahman and Dahr Jamail*

BAGHDAD - Under Saddam Hussein, women in government got a year's maternity leave; that is now cut to six months. Under the Personal Status Law in force since Jul. 14, 1958, when Iraqis overthrew the British-installed monarchy, Iraqi women had most of the rights that Western women do.

IRAQ: Medical Care At Last, At a Price

IRAQ: Still Homeless in Baghdad

IRAQ: The River Too Tells the Story

MIDEAST: Building Settlements, Not Peace
Jerrold Kessel and Pierre Klochendler
JERUSALEM - "The best laid-schemes o' mice an' men gang aft a-gley" (Scottish for 'going wrong').

CHINA: Binge-drinking Culture Turning from Fun to Lethal
Mitch Moxley
BEIJING - 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.

RIGHTS: U.S. Concerned Over Curbs on NGOs, Press, Internet
	Releasing its annual report on the state of human rights around the world, the U.S. State Department Thursday said it was increasingly concerned about curbs imposed by foreign governments on civil society groups, the press, and Internet use.

POLITICS: Sri Lanka Garners Support Against U.N. Probe

EGYPT: U.N. Slams Abuse of Emergency Law

KENYA: Proposed Constitutional Amendment Sets Back Women’s Rights
	Lillian Mutuku, a 34-year-old mother of three, describes her home in Katine area, in Kenya’s Eastern province Tala, as a harsh place to live. The soil is poor, she says, the sun beats down mercilessly and vegetation is sparse.

SOUTH AFRICA: Gender Loses Out in Basic Education Crisis

SOMALIA: U.S. Should Accept Islamist Authority, Report Says

PHILIPPINES: Reproductive Health Tests Candidates’ Political Guts
	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

POLITICS: Sri Lanka Garners Support Against U.N. Probe

Q&A: 'Israeli Siege Causing De-development of Gaza'
	For the first time since September 2006, Mahmoud Abu Rahma, a leading figure in the Palestinian human rights group Al Mezan, has been granted permission to travel outside Gaza.

EUROPE: Green Finance Wise, or Otherwise

US-TURKEY: Armenian Genocide Vote Threatens Ties at Key Moment

CHILE: Aftershocks Rock Inaugural Ceremony
	While Chile's new rightwing President Sebastián Piñera, who announced that he would lead "a government of reconstruction," was being sworn in Thursday, the earthquake-ravaged country was shaken by major aftershocks.

ECUADOR: Native Leaders Call for Anti-Government Protests

EDUCATION-URUGUAY: Gardens of Knowledge

IRAQ: Women Miss Saddam
	Under Saddam Hussein, women in government got a year's maternity leave; that is now cut to six months. Under the Personal Status Law in force since Jul. 14, 1958, when Iraqis overthrew the British-installed monarchy, Iraqi women had most of the rights that Western women do.

EGYPT: Population Growth Overtakes Literacy Rise

MIDEAST: Building Settlements, Not Peace

RIGHTS: U.S. Concerned Over Curbs on NGOs, Press, Internet
	Releasing its annual report on the state of human rights around the world, the U.S. State Department Thursday said it was increasingly concerned about curbs imposed by foreign governments on civil society groups, the press, and Internet use.

SOMALIA: U.S. Should Accept Islamist Authority, Report Says

POLITICS: U.S. Lifts Restrictions on Web Services

INDONESIA: Waste Composting Project Blazes Cleaner Path
	Battling the pain from a boil on his left thigh, 45-year-old Inggit Tukino pulled his two-wheeled cart through the overcrowded alleys of a slum in Rawabebek, Penjaringan hamlet in here North Jakarta.

EDUCATION-URUGUAY: Gardens of Knowledge

TANZANIA: Weather Changes Turn Farming into Gamble with Nature

PHILIPPINES: Reproductive Health Tests Candidates’ Political Guts
	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.

IRAQ: Women Miss Saddam

EGYPT: Population Growth Overtakes Literacy Rise

PHILIPPINES: Reproductive Health Tests Candidates’ Political Guts
	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

INDONESIA: Waste Composting Project Blazes Cleaner Path

RIGHTS: U.S. Concerned Over Curbs on NGOs, Press, Internet
	Releasing its annual report on the state of human rights around the world, the U.S. State Department Thursday said it was increasingly concerned about curbs imposed by foreign governments on civil society groups, the press, and Internet use.

ECUADOR: Avatar Downfall a Blow for Indigenous Communities

MIDEAST: Israeli Left Emerges From Coma Amid Atrocities