QUEQUEÑA, Peru, Aug 15 (IPS) - Women and young people are central players in dozens of small businesses and environmental protection plans that are changing the lives of poor rural families in the Andes highlands of southern Peru.

WASHINGTON, Aug 15 (IPS) - The U.S. secretary of defence has unveiled a series of new directives aimed at cracking down on an epidemic of sexual assaults in the armed forces, an issue that has seized the very top levels of the military brass in recent months.

UXBRIDGE, Canada, Aug 15 (IPS) - Two reports released Wednesday reveal the dangerous gap between science and politics. New climate research shows that extreme events such as the severe heat wave in the U.S. last year will double in 2020, increase 400 percent by 2040, and then get far worse without significant carbon reductions.

WASHINGTON, Aug 15 (IPS) - Against the backdrop of two major announcements of Israeli settlement expansion, U.S.-brokered peace talks between the Israelis and the Palestinians resumed Thursday in Jerusalem.

WASHINGTON, Aug 15 (IPS) - The revolutionary aspirations for justice, dignity and hope that Egypt's young people brought to the world in January 2011 were crushed Wednesday by the military's bloody crackdown.

NEW YORK, Aug 15 (IPS) - Although Hurricane Sandy made her final sweep through the Northeastern United States nearly 10 months ago, for many people the stress caused by the storm lingers.

MONTEVIDEO, Aug 15 (IPS) - Latin America and the Caribbean cannot hope to have truly advanced, progressive policies in sexual and reproductive health as long as women do not have the right to decide to interrupt their pregnancy, says Mariela Castro.

CAIRO, Aug 15 (IPS) - The youth within the Muslim Brotherhood may become very difficult to restrain following the bloody killings in Cairo, senior party members say.

DAR ES SALAAM, Aug 15 (IPS) - The Chinese characters boldly painted on a supermarket poster in Tanzania's commercial capital Dar es Salaam say a lot about the growing influence of China on this east African nation. 

KOLKATA, Aug 15 (IPS) - What's less than two months old, has hit the headlines globally, and has more than 79,000 ‘likes' and over 16,000 people talking about it?