ATHENS/WARSAW, Jan 09 (IPS) - The European Union is implementing a new border management system with tougher migration control the core aim. Major security and weapons companies are already reaping the benefits.

WASHINGTON, Jan 09 (IPS) - Civil society actors and the some corporate groups here are reacting with excitement to indications that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which regulates the country's stock exchanges, is likely to take up discussion over new rules that would mandate the public disclosure of all political spending by U.S.-listed public corporations.

WASHINGTON, Jan 08 (IPS) - The United States government is spending more on immigration enforcement each year than it is on all other federal law-enforcement agencies combined, according to the first comprehensive look at how the country's sprawling immigration complex has grown over the past decade.

WASHINGTON, Jan 08 (IPS) - Global demand for soybeans has soared in recent decades, with China leading the race. Nearly 60 percent of all soybeans entering international trade today go to China, making it far and away the world's largest importer.

UNITED NATIONS, Jan 08 (IPS) - The United States continues to be in the dubious company of six countries that have either refused or are reluctant to ratify the landmark U.N. Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW).

DAR ES SALAAM, Jan 08 (IPS) - Avelina Elias Mkenda, a 52-year-old small-scale farmer in the Mbarali district of Tanzania's southwestern Mbeya region, can sense a change in her environment.

JOHANNESBURG, Jan 08 (IPS) - Not many nice things can be said about the apartheid regime in South Africa. It was racist, violent in the brutal oppression of many of its own citizens, and was despised around the world.

TAIPEI, Jan 08 (IPS) - Taiwanese activists and human rights advocates ushered in the New Year with promises to prevent "a return to authoritarianism" and bring justice to the families of prisoners who were executed just before Christmas.

SANTIAGO, Jan 08 (IPS) - A string of attacks in the southern Chilean region of Araucanía, where native Mapuche people are struggling for their land rights, puts the spotlight squarely on what analysts call the "supine ignorance" displayed by authorities about the country's history.

WASHINGTON, Jan 08 (IPS) - Rounding out his second-term foreign policy picks, U.S. President Barack Obama Monday nominated former Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel to head the Pentagon and his top counter-terrorism adviser, John Brennan, to direct the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).