TAIPEI, Sep 11 (IPS) - The Taiwan government's plan to liberalise tariff-free imports of agricultural produce from China and other countries for processing in free economic pilot zones, which will then be exported as ‘Made in Taiwan' items, may mean suicide for Taiwanese farmers if approved by the national legislature.

BANDE, Niger, Sep 11 (IPS) - It is a long, 14-hour drive from Niger's capital city Niamey to the village of Bande. And the ride is a dreary one as the roadside is bare. The occasional, lone goat herder is spotted every few kilometres and the sightings become a cause of both confusion and excitement since there aren't any trees, or watering holes in sight.

UNITED NATIONS, Sep 11 (IPS) - After four long years of protracted negotiations, a proposal for a nuclear weapons-free zone (NWFZ) in the strife-torn Middle East remains in limbo - and perhaps virtually dead.

BRUSSELS, Sep 10 (IPS) - The appointment of Italian Foreign Minister Federica Mogherini as the new European Union foreign policy chief offers the opportunity for an overhaul of EU foreign and security policy.

UNITED NATIONS, Sep 10 (IPS) - If a Silicon Valley existed for the culture of peace, it would most likely look to global citizenship as the next big industry shake-up.

NAIROBI, Sep 10 (IPS) - When Kiprui Kibet pictures his future as a maize farmer in the fertile Uasin Gishu county in Kenya's Rift Valley region, all he sees is the ever-decreasing plot of land that he has to farm on.

WASHINGTON, Sep 10 (IPS) - A top-level international panel called Tuesday for a major shift in global drug-control policies from prohibition to decriminalisation and regulation.

WASHINGTON, Sep 09 (IPS) - Israel and its supporters abroad have parried accusations of indiscriminate destruction and mass killing of civilians in Gaza by arguing that they were consequences of strikes aimed at protecting Israeli civilians from rockets that were being launched from very near civilian structures.

WASHINGTON, Sep 09 (IPS) - Using schools for shelter was a natural. When the Islamic State drove waves of people from the Sinjar area of Iraq in early August, most of them members of the Yazidi minority group, they fled first to the mountains and then to the relative safety of Iraqi Kurdistan. They camped out in whatever unoccupied structures they could find.

UNITED NATIONS, Sep 09 (IPS) - Eighteen-year-old Gift Makau enjoyed playing and refereeing football games in her neighbourhood in the North West Province of South Africa. She had come out to her parents as a lesbian and had never been heckled by her community, according to her cousin.