WASHINGTON, Aug 12 (IPS) - U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder has directed the Justice Department to institute a slew of major reforms to federal charging policies that have long required automatic prison time for even minor drug offences.

BOGOTA, Aug 12 (IPS) - "There is no development without peace. It should be understood that, for there to be development in a country, there must be an internal peace process," says Kanayo Nwanze, president of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).

BUENOS AIRES, Aug 12 (IPS) - A new social programme launched by the Argentine government to fight hard-core poverty is providing unemployed mothers who are heads of households with education, training, work and an income.

, Aug 12 (IPS) - Voting may have ended in Zimbabwe's presidential election, but the controversy around the vote has not.

TEL AVIV, Aug 12 (IPS) - Standing in front of the makeshift memorial corner of his deceased children that he arranged in the room , Tzion Swery says to himself, "How ironical that we mark the 12th anniversary of their death on Tuesday just as Israel starts releasing Palestinian prisoners."

KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 12 (IPS) - A distance of nearly 9,000 kilometres separates Malaysia from Africa, but that hasn't stopped the Southeast Asian nation from becoming a key staging post in the illegal trade of ivory from Africa to China.

CHAPEL HILL, North Carolina, Aug 11 (IPS) - In a historic letter to President Barack Obama, 52 Iranian political prisoners describe the effect of the crippling sanctions regime on the Iranian people and plead for a new approach to the nuclear issue. They write:

KOLKATA, India, Aug 11 (IPS) - When there is feasting in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, there could just be a connection between the celebrations and the fires on Indonesia's Sumatra Island that trigger frequent transboundary smog.

LAHORE, Pakistan, Aug 11 (IPS) - Zahid Husain, 25, is a salesman in the Pakistan city Lahore. He sits idly on the pavement of a clothes shop and plays a game on his cell phone, oblivious to the changes in the city all around him.

WASHINGTON, Aug 10 (IPS) - The controversial topic of medical cannabis has been put under a microscope after the internationally known neurosurgeon Dr. Sanjay Gupta came out in support of its use this week.