OMO VALLEY, Ethiopia, Nov 11 (IPS) - As the construction of a major transmission line to export electricity generated from one of Ethiopia's major hydropower projects gets underway, there are growing concerns that pastoralist communities living in the region are under threat.

MOSCOW, Nov 11 (IPS) - Despite an endorsement from the International Olympic Committee (IOC) for their adherence to environmental standards in preparations for next year's Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russian authorities are cracking down harder and harder on people trying to expose the environmental cost of projects related to the Games.

QATSRIN, Occupied Golan Heights, Nov 11 (IPS) - In the municipal sports hall with an army officer to his side, Father Gabriel Nadaf, a Greek Orthodox Arab priest in full regalia, briefs Arab Christian twelfth-graders on the merits of serving in the Israel Defence Forces (IDF). "It's only natural that the country which protects us deserves that we contribute to its defence," he tells them.

GENEVA, Nov 10 (IPS) - Despite rising hopes amid an unexpected turn of events, negotiations here between Iran and six world powers have ended without an agreement over Tehran's nuclear programme.

PESHAWAR, Pakistan, Nov 10 (IPS) - Seventeen-year-old Usmanullah Shah has never been to Afghanistan, the land of his forefathers. The son of Afghan parents who fled to Pakistan 34 years ago to escape war, he shudders at the thought of going there.

TORONTO, Nov 09 (IPS) - Gossip and rumour based on secret intelligence sources may be all that is needed to deport a foreign national from Canada on national security grounds, legal experts say.

ZWARA, Libya, Nov 09 (IPS) - "Oil tankers won´t get crude from this port until Tripoli finally meets our demands," says Younis, one of the Amazigh rebels today blocking one of Libya´s largest gas and crude oil plants.

ABIDJAN, Côte d’Ivoire, Nov 08 (IPS) - At the Cocody-Anono community health centre, south-east of the Ivorian economic capital of Abidjan, Bertine Bahi* regularly attends awareness sessions on Preventing Mother-to-Child Transmission (PMTCT) for women living with HIV.

WASHINGTON, Nov 08 (IPS) - The almost three-year-old Syrian civil war has been a "silent war on human and economic development", destroying the ability of ordinary Syrian citizens to maintain basic livelihoods, according to a report launched here Wednesday by two United Nations agencies.

GENEVA, Nov 08 (IPS) - Raising expectations for a deal over its controversial nuclear programme, Iran's chief negotiator Mohammad Javad Zarif has said that a joint statement on the framework of a nuclear deal could be issued as early as Friday here amid ongoing negotiations with the P5+1 group of world powers.