CAIRO, Aug 19 (IPS) - Dina Gamal, whose 10-year-old son was born blind, says it is not him but Egyptian society that lives in the dark.

SYDNEY, Aug 19 (IPS) - Governments in the Western Pacific Islands, believed to be home to a third of the world's smokers, have begun a long battle with the growing crisis of non-communicable diseases. Such diseases currently account for 75 percent of the region's fatalities.

MEXICO CITY, Aug 18 (IPS) - Non-governmental organisations are putting pressure on multilateral financial institutions not to finance production of shale gas by hydraulic fracturing or fracking because of the high environmental costs they say are associated with this method.

KUBUQI, China, Aug 18 (IPS) - It may take development of the deserts to save forests, say experts, who stress that desert ecology needs to be preserved and enhanced.

JOHANNESBURG/MBABANE, Aug 18 (IPS) - Experts are agreed that the key to unlocking the economic potential of the Southern African Development Community lies in easing cross-border flows of people, goods, capital and services.

PESHAWAR, Aug 18 (IPS) - Nervousness permeates the very air of Dera Ismail Khan these days. It has been more than a fortnight since militants attacked a high security prison here in a military-like operation and released about 200 inmates, including Taliban commanders.

GENEVA, Aug 17 (IPS) - Two new trade agreements involving the two economic giants, the United States and the European Union, are leading a charge against the role of the state in the economy of developing countries.

JOHANNESBURG/LUBUMBASHI, Aug 17 (IPS) - There are big aspirations for Africa's largest hydroelectric project, the Inga III that is set to be built in the Democratic Republic of Congo. But analysts are sceptical that such an ambitious project will ever be realised.

CAIRO, Aug 17 (IPS) - The violence in Cairo came amidst firm indications that Muslim Brotherhood members hit back after a brutal crackdown this week that left many hundreds dead. And the winds of retaliation have blowing in from the Sinai peninsula, the desert to the east.

WASHINGTON, Aug 17 (IPS) - The U.S. Department of Energy has announced it is accepting a petition from a conservative advocacy group critical of a recent substantial increase to official calculations of the so-called "social cost of carbon".