ANTANANARIVO, Jul 16 (IPS) - Every Friday, mothers and their children gather at the community nutrition centre in the little village of Rantolava, 450 kilometres north east of Antananarivo, the Malagasy capital, to learn more about a healthy diet.

, Jul 16 (IPS) - With ever increasing sanctions against Iran, escalating violence in Syria and the continuing political struggles in Egypt, a new dynamic has been added to the long-standing policy challenges in the Middle East.

, Jul 16 (IPS) - SANTIAGO DE CHILE, Jul 15 2012 (IPS) - The Chilean government’s decision to invite companies to tender offers for mine lithium resources has been widely rejected by mining trade unions and legislators of the opposition.

, Jul 16 (IPS) - PORT-OF-SPAIN, Trinidad, Jul 13 2012 (IPS) - Ordinarily they live for at least half a century. But at least 20,000 leatherback sea turtle hatchlings never made it past their nesting ground at Grand Riviere, a stretch of shoreline along Trinidad’s north coast, in what’s been described as “an engineering disaster” last weekend.

KABUL, Jul 16 (IPS) - It is customary to focus on the amount of money the international community offers Afghanistan: the higher the sum and the longer the commitment, the lower the risk of further destabilisation. And so the 16 billion dollars pledged by the donors for the next four years at the Tokyo conference earlier this month has been widely welcomed. But such aid may not be quite the virtue it seems.

RAMESHWARAM, Jul 16 (IPS) - One hundred and fifty years ago, the British colonial administration in India proposed a shipping canal project that would allow cargo vessels, commercial liners and large ships to cut through the Gulf of Mannar Marine National Park in the Palk Straits between India and Sri Lanka, thereby slashing 424 nautical miles (about 780 kilometres) off the traditional shipping route around Sri Lanka to the Far East.

TORONTO, Jul 16 (IPS) - The arrests last week of the three remaining perpetrators of the alleged Opapa human trafficking ring, which forced 19 people recruited from Hungary to endure long work days, poor living conditions and no pay in the Canadian construction industry, has cast a light on Ottawa’s new measures to combat the crime.

TEL AVIV, Jul 15 (IPS) - During a march Saturday marking one year since social protests engulfed Israel, a man silently set himself on fire, leaving behind him a painful “I accuse!” letter that exposes widespread disillusionment in the face of the immense expectation for change, and the abyss between the people and the State.

SANTIAGO DE CHILE, Jul 15 (IPS) - The Chilean government's decision to invite companies to tender offers for mine lithium resources has been widely rejected by mining trade unions and legislators of the opposition.

CAIRO, Jul 15 (IPS) - The first major confrontation between Egypt's new Islamist president and its quasi-ruling military council – fought over the issue of legislative authority – appears to have been won by the latter.