ROME, Nov 26 (IPS) - After the Italian sea search-and-rescue operation Mare Nostrum at a cost of nine million euros a month, through which the Italian Navy has rescued nearly 100,000 migrants – although perhaps up to 3,000 have died – from the Mediterranean since October 2013, Europe is now presenting its new face in the Mediterranean.

MANILA, Nov 26 (IPS) - Jon Sarmiento, a farmer in the Cavite province in southern Manila, plants a variety of fruits and vegetables, but his main crop, rice, is under threat. He claims that approval by the Philippine government of the genetically modified ‘golden rice' that is fortified with beta-carotene, which the body converts into vitamin A, could ruin his livelihood.

JOHANNESBURG, Nov 26 (IPS) - Has organised civil society, bound up in internal bureaucracy, in slow, tired processes and donor accountability, become simply another layer of a global system that perpetuates injustice and inequality?

UNITED NATIONS, Nov 25 (IPS) - -"A recurring nightmare for me is I'm trying to tell someone something and they are not listening. I'm yelling at the top of my lungs and it feels like there is a glass wall between us."

SAN JOSE, Nov 25 (IPS) - Worried about the effects of global warming on agriculture, water and food security in their communities, social organisations in Central America are demanding that their governments put a priority on these issues in the COP20 climate summit.

JOHANNESBURG, Nov 25 (IPS) - Nabeel Rajab, president of the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights, an advocacy NGO, is facing criminal charges for sending a tweet that said: "many Bahrain men who joined terrorism and ISIS have come from the security institutions and those institutions were the first ideological incubator".

UNITED NATIONS, Nov 25 (IPS) - Has the world reached a stage where nuclear weapons may be used as bargaining chips in international politics?

WASHINGTON, Nov 25 (IPS) - Major U.S. jewellery companies and retailers have started to take substantive steps to eliminate the presence of "conflict gold" from their supply chains, according to the results of a year-long investigation published Monday.

WASHINGTON, Nov 25 (IPS) - Buoyed by the failure of the U.S. and five other powers to reach a comprehensive agreement with Iran over its nuclear programme after a week of intensive talks, pro-Israel and Republican hawks are calling for Washington to ramp up economic pressure on Tehran even while talks continue, and to give Congress a veto on any final accord.

LONDON, Nov 24 (IPS) - The Ebola crisis has thrown into sharp relief the issue of water, sanitation and hygiene in treating and caring for the sick. Dying patients are being taken to hospitals which never had enough water to maintain hygiene, and the epidemic has pushed the system to breaking point.