MANAMA, Mar 11 (IPS) - After a week of activities in Oslo during the Conference on the Humanitarian Impact of Nuclear Weapons, major anti-nuclear campaigners moved Monday to the Bahraini capital, Manama, in yet another step towards the abolition of atomic weapons.

BOGOTA, Mar 11 (IPS) - The world has been shaken by the death of Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, one of the most influential Latin American leaders in recent decades, as well as one of the most controversial and maligned figures on the planet.

RIO DE JANEIRO, Mar 11 (IPS) - The story generally begins in Brazil's hinterland, with a pretty, young woman from a disadvantaged background and with little formal education, who is drawn in by false promises and ends up in a sex trade network that stretches overseas.

LONDON, Mar 11 (IPS) - When the environment changes, smart creatures adapt. And, in the face of a changing climate and changing economics, smart people are backing green energy. In 2011 almost a third of new electricity came from renewable sources. But, just as the first mammals had to contend with a world of dinosaurs, the pioneers of green energy have to contend with a world based on an obsolete carbon-based energy system that refuses to upgrade.

JOHANNESBURG, Mar 11 (IPS) - There is growing resentment in Africa about the way in which South Africa professes to speak for the rest of the continent in its role as a member of key developing nation blocs, researchers and experts have warned.

UXBRIDGE, Canada, Mar 11 (IPS) - "Canada is not a country, it's winter," Canadians say with pride. But the nation's long, fearsome winters will live only in memory and song for Canadian children born this decade.

UNITED NATIONS, Mar 11 (IPS) - When the largest single gathering of women met at the United Nations in February last year, the adoption of a future plan of action was undermined by rigidly conservative governments opposed to women's reproductive rights - largely misinterpreted as a right to abortion.

BERLIN, Mar 11 (IPS) - Indigenous filmmakers and audiovisual artists worldwide are celebrating their growing visibility, as native voices and stories edge their way onto the big screen, gaining international recognition both artistically and commercially.

TOKYO, Mar 11 (IPS) - Japan has promised to scrap the crippled Fukushima nuclear reactors that faced the world's worst nuclear accident. But Hiroyuki Watanabe, councillor in Iwaki City located 30 kilometres from the accident site, greets such intentions on the second anniversary of the disaster on Monday with misgiving.

ROME, Mar 11 (IPS) - For those who think that Occupy Wall Street, the Indignados in Spain, the World Social Forum and the numerous manifestations of protest worldwide are expressions without concrete outcomes, the result of the Swiss referendum on Mar. 3 on capping the salaries and bonuses of banks executives should make them think twice.