IDLIB PROVINCE, Syria, Nov 21 (IPS) - Concerns are rising that courts run by Islamic clerics in many of Syria's rebel-held areas may serve as a prelude to Taliban-style justice in what was long a violently repressive but secular state.

HARARE, Nov 21 (IPS) - Seventeen-year-old Natalie Mlambo* has two good reasons to get tested for HIV. She has two boyfriends and has unprotected sex with them. One is a high school classmate. The other is older, works in a bank, and can afford to give Mlambo small gifts and some money.

GENEVA, Nov 21 (IPS) - Amidst rising expectations of a breakthrough, Iran and six world powers Wednesday resumed their quest for a deal on Iran's controversial nuclear programme that seemed just within reach earlier this month.

WASHINGTON, Nov 21 (IPS) - Nearly two weeks after Typhoon Haiyan devastated parts of the central Philippines, experts and activists here are warning that post-disaster reconstruction needs to be more transparent than past such efforts, while also focusing on a long-term assistance strategy that goes beyond immediate emergency relief.

WARSAW, Nov 20 (IPS) - Diann Black-Layne grew up in a single parent home with nine siblings on the tiny Caribbean island of Antigua. Still, life was easygoing and enjoyable, she recalls. For her, it was paradise.

, Nov 20 (IPS) - Thousands of small farming families in Pará, in the Amazon jungle in northeast Brazil, have turned to the African oil palm as a new source of income, through contracts with biofuel companies. Strange bedfellows, which poses cultural and economic challenges.

LILONGWE, Nov 20 (IPS) - Gogo Munthali, from Rumphi, a village over 400 km north of Malawi's capital Lilongwe, dissolves into tears every morning as she worries about what to feed her five orphaned grandchildren, the youngest of whom has full blown AIDS.

CAIRO, Nov 20 (IPS) - The Middle East has some of the best and worst education systems in the world and they are attracting the attention of entrepreneurs keen to make a difference – and a buck.

ATHENS, Nov 20 (IPS) - Human rights groups have circulated evidence in the last few days indicating that Greece, Italy and Egypt illegally detain and push back Syrian refugees.

, Nov 20 (IPS) - Growing income inequality will pose a major threat to social stability in countries around the globe, according to a new report by the World Economic Forum.