SANTIAGO, Aug 20 (IPS) - "There's something sexist about saying that the candidates are two women. Has anyone ever remarked on it when the candidates are two men?" former Chilean president Michelle Bachelet complained about comparisons between herself and her main rival in the presidential elections, rightwing candidate Evelyn Matthei.

HAVANA, Aug 20 (IPS) - The furrows are hard to make out in fields of the Finca de Semillas, a farm on Havana's outskirts, because its administrators, Esmilda Sánchez and Raúl Aguilar, protect every centimetre of soil with mulch.

JOHANNESBURG, Aug 20 (IPS) - Water remains a key component in development policy. And, as the Southern African Development Community discusses how best to develop the region, the effective management of watercourses will be key, says Professor Anthony Turton, one of the foremost experts on water policy in southern Africa and a trustee of the Water Stewardship Council of Southern Africa.

MOGADISHU, Aug 20 (IPS) - Somalia's journalists say that the government is not serious about reviewing the country's new, controversial media bill that requires them to reveal their sources, despite a series of recent consultations.

CAIRO, Aug 20 (IPS) - Churches across Egypt are being attacked heavily following the brutal killing last week of supporters of deposed Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi.

RIO DE JANEIRO, Aug 19 (IPS) - Over the last two decades, nearly 92,000 people have gone missing in the Brazilian state of Rio de Janeiro, according to official figures and academic studies. Most of the cases have been shelved with little or no investigation.

WASHINGTON, Aug 19 (IPS) - Anti-poverty campaigners are celebrating the Norwegian government's release of an external audit of all outstanding public debts it is owed by developing countries, the first time any country has undertaken such a process.

PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, Aug 19 (IPS) - The Caribbean is in danger of becoming "a region of serial defaulters" with respect to international debt obligations, according to one expert, and this may partly be due to its economies suffering frequent shocks from natural disasters.

UNITED NATIONS, Aug 19 (IPS) - As Michel Djotodia took his oath as the new president of the Central African Republic (CAR) on Aug. 18, Séléka, the coalition of rebel groups that he led and that helped him overthrow the government on Mar. 23, were still looting and killing civilians.

HAVANA, Aug 19 (IPS) - Vilda Figueroa and her husband, José Lama, live in Marianao on the outskirts of Havana, where they share hundreds of recipes based on Cuban-grown foods and sun-drying, along with other ecological food preservation methods.