DURA, Occupied West Bank, Nov 12 (IPS) - Fatmeh Abu Hrar Tabeel has had her first ever breast cancer screening. "It feels good to know, of course. Thanks to god, I am well," the 51-year-old mother of seven told IPS. "Now I can examine myself once a month from home; the doctor showed me how."

SAFED, Northern Israel, Nov 12 (IPS) - It came like a bolt from the blue on this serene city perched in the hills of Galilee. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas declared on Israel's Channel Two television earlier this month, "I want to see Safed! It's my right to see it, but not to live there."

DAKAR, Nov 12 (IPS) - The residents of five villages in the Boyard Valley, in southwestern Senegal, are freeing themselves from "the tyranny of imported rice" by stepping up local production of this important staple food.

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 11 (IPS) - Malaysia is gearing up for a general election in six months and as the campaigns enter the crucial voter-courting phase many observers are wondering if the political ‘tsunami', which severely weakened the ruling National Front coalition (BN) at the 2008 polls, might be repeated.

KARACHI, Nov 11 (IPS) - Violence and crime are on the rise in Pakistan and none are more at risk than those who witness murders, robberies, abuse or kidnapping first-hand.

JAFFNA, Sri Lanka, Nov 10 (IPS) - War is seldom good for anything, especially protracted conflicts like the one in Sri Lanka, which dragged on for over three decades and claimed between 80,000 to 100,000 lives.

WASHINGTON, Nov 10 (IPS) - While political and media attention remains focused on the unprecedented support President Barack Obama received in Tuesday's election from Latinos, one particular subset of those voters - one with potential foreign policy clout - is drawing intense interest.

ATHENS, Nov 09 (IPS) - Ignoring the thousands of protestors gathered outside the Greek parliament on Wednesday, the government voted in public spending cuts amounting to 17 billion dollars in an economy already on its knees from a lacerated budget.

WASHINGTON, Nov 09 (IPS) - Researchers unveiling critical trial results of a potentially major anti-malaria vaccine are expressing disappointment that the drug's efficacy levels have proved lower than they had anticipated.

TEMACAPULÍN, Mexico, Nov 09 (IPS) - "What do we stand to lose because of the dam? We will lose everything!" said Maria Abigail Agredani, a member of the committee for this indigenous community in the western Mexican state of Jalisco, reporting the damage that will be caused by the hydroelectric complex being built nearby.