MANAMA, Sep 25 (IPS) - A thirty-four-year-old Bahraini teacher, whose son was abused five years ago, has hitherto refused to tell anyone the story, afraid that she will be blamed for failing to protect her child who is now eight years old.

ABIDJAN, Sep 25 (IPS) - Women farmers in Côte d'Ivoire are achieving greater autonomy and economic independence thanks to new varieties of cassava.

UNITED NATIONS, Sep 25 (IPS) - On the International Day of Peace, Nobel Prize winner Wole Soyinka visited the United Nations - and called for armed intervention against the terrorist group Boko Haram in his home country of Nigeria.

MÁLAGA, Spain, Sep 24 (IPS) - Over the past year and a half, Spain has been caught up in constant street protests against measures taken to combat the severe economic crisis. But some say the movement has failed to come together around concrete proposals.

UNITED NATIONS, Sep 24 (IPS) - When the United Nations commemorated International Day of Peace last week, the celebrations were marred by news of widespread rage in the Islamic world, a continued bloody civil war in Syria, suicide bombings in Iraq and Afghanistan and violent demonstrations in Pakistan, Indonesia and Bangladesh against a video caricaturing the Prophet Muhammad.

TBILISI, Sep 24 (IPS) - Rooted in longstanding historical, religious and economic differences, Georgian animosity toward neighbouring Turkey, Georgia’s fifth-largest investor, appears to be growing in the Black Sea region of Achara.

MEXICO CITY, Sep 24 (IPS) - The La Ventanilla community in the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca has not given up in the face of devastating hurricanes, but has organised to protect mangroves and animal species like the Olive Ridley sea turtle.

CASTRO MARIM, Portugal, Sep 24 (IPS) - A promising alternative in Portugal’s profoundly depressed domestic market are incentives for traditional exports which, due to their high quality or uniqueness, do not face fierce foreign competition. “Flor de sal”, the country’s premium hand-harvested sea salt, is one of these products.

WASHINGTON, Sep 24 (IPS) - Iran has again offered to halt its enrichment of uranium to 20 percent, which the United States has identified as its highest priority in the nuclear talks, in return for easing sanctions against Iran, according to Iran’s permanent representative to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

KARACHI, Sep 24 (IPS) - The cost of doing business in Pakistan’s southern port city of Karachi is steep. Surviving the climate of impunity now requires more than bags of protection money – it also calls for a stoutness of heart.