UNITED NATIONS, Sep 04 (IPS) - The United States, which is preparing to launch a military strike on Syria, is being cautioned by several former world leaders and Nobel Peace laureates to seek a political solution to the ongoing crisis - and forego armed intervention in the beleaguered Middle Eastern nation.

WASHINGTON, Sep 04 (IPS) - An international convention enters into effect on Thursday that could eventually extend labour rights to as many as 100 million domestic workers across the globe, a constituency that has historically been bypassed by national laws.

SAN SALVADOR, Sep 04 (IPS) - Few people today know that when the first news agencies were created in the 19th century, the French Havas and the British Reuters divided the world between themselves.

TEGUCIGALPA, Sep 04 (IPS) - Human rights defenders and members of the opposition in Honduras see a new elite military unit created to engage in policing as a drastic setback for the demilitarisation efforts that began two decades ago.

BUENOS AIRES, Sep 04 (IPS) - Latin America's cash transfer programmes are a more effective weapon against poverty and social inequality than economic growth alone, according to a study by two Argentine economists.

NAIROBI, Sep 04 (IPS) - Zeinab Mohamed is a 70-year-old squatter in Kwale County, in Kenya's Coast Province. Like many other Coast Province residents, for decades, Mohamed has lived in what squatters call "floating houses".

HARARE, Sep 04 (IPS) - Prosper Muripo rents a small space in a general dealer's shop at the Gotora shopping centre in Zimbabwe's Mashonaland East province. He is one of the many people in rural Zimbabwe who earn a living selling recharge vouchers and charging mobile phone batteries on solar-powered chargers.

PESHAWAR, Pakistan, Sep 04 (IPS) - "I consider myself lucky after finding my son," says Muhammad Jabeen, a juice vendor in Bannu, one of the 25 districts of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in northern Pakistan. The Taliban had taken his son, Mateen Shah, away from a madrassa to join their ranks.

BONN, Germany, Sep 04 (IPS) - Recent fatal attacks off Réunion have re-ignited demands for sharks to be hunted. But when it comes to humans and sharks, who is predator and who is prey? And what lessons need to be learned when people venture into environments where they are exposed to dangers posed by wildlife? 

WASHINGTON, Sep 04 (IPS) - An international coalition has agreed to begin working towards domestic regulation aimed at reducing the use of HFCs, compounds commonly used as refrigerants but referred to as "super greenhouse gases" for their particularly negative impact on global warming.