MANAGUA, Sep 15 (IPS) - With strict security measures and the deployment of special heavily-armed troops, Nicaragua is waging a successful war in the courts, by sea, and on land against drug traffickers shipping drugs through Central America to the United States.

WASHINGTON, Sep 15 (IPS) - With 2011 marking the deadliest year for poaching-related elephant deaths in Africa since an international ivory ban went into effect in 1989, a new investigative report released here Friday points to the ongoing impact of religious custom as well as the newfound economic might of China.

NIAMEY, Sep 14 (IPS) - Hundreds of thousands of people have been affected by heavy flooding along the Niger River over the last few weeks. Niger, Mali and Benin have been particularly hard hit, with dozens of deaths, tens of thousands of houses destroyed and vast areas of farmland submerged by rising waters.

BRUSSELS, Sep 14 (IPS) - By 2020, countries that are signatory to the Kyoto protocol will have accumulated more than 17 billion tonnes of surplus emission reduction permits, a new study shows. This enormous surplus not only drives the carbon price close to zero, but also jeapordises the chances of reaching a new global climate deal.

KARACHI, Sep 14 (IPS) - The inferno that killed over 250 people at a garments factory in Karachi’s Baldia Town on Sept. 11 has raised questions over not just poor workplace safety standards in industry but massive corruption in government which leads to the flouting of building laws.

RAFAH, Gaza, Sep 14 (IPS) - The car's engine revs, wheels spinning in vain, as it sinks deeper into the sandy lane near Rafah, southern Gaza. Members of the Palestinian Paralympic Committee (PPC) are en route to welcome Palestine's two Paralympic contenders, Mohammed Fanouna and Khamis Zaqut, home from the 2012 London Paralympic Games.

ST. JULIAN’S, Malta, Sep 14 (IPS) - Most islands are well endowed with one or more renewable energy source – rivers, waterfalls, wind, sunshine, biomass, wave power, geothermal deposits - yet virtually all remain heavily or entirely reliant on imported fossil fuels to produce electricity and power transport.

HAVANA, Sep 14 (IPS) - “We age much more quickly than we learn how to,” says Juan Carlos Alfonso, director of the Population and Housing Census that begins to be carried out on Saturday, Sept. 15 in Cuba. The question of aging is on many minds in this country, where important social progress has been made but acute economic problems persist.

TRIPOLI, Sep 14 (IPS) - The revolution might officially be over in Libya but the ground war continues. But one enemy is motionless and often hidden, and Libyans are continuing to pay the price with hundreds maimed and killed.

WASHINGTON, Sep 14 (IPS) - Academics gathered in Washington on Wednesday suggested that the mixed experience at the U.N. Conference on Sustainable Development, held in Rio de Janeiro in June, has increased the importance of citizen engagement and consumer accountability in issues of environment, renewable energy and sustainability.