MADHU, Sri Lanka, Jan 15 (IPS) - Jessi Jogeswaran, a 20-year-old woman from Sri Lanka's northern Jaffna district, waited over six hours with 18 friends in the sweltering heat just to get a glimpse of Pope Francis on Jan. 14.

SAN SALVADOR, Jan 15 (IPS) - The upcoming municipal and legislative elections in March and the hiring of former New York mayor Rudolph Giuliani as a kind of anti-crime tzar are not the best equation for bringing down El Salvador's high murder rate, analysts say.

BINDO GOL, Pakistan, Jan 15 (IPS) - Khaliq-ul-Zaman, a farmer from the remote Bindo Gol valley in northern Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, has long lived under the shadow of disaster.

MAROUA, Far North Region, Jan 14 (IPS) - "I'd quit my job before going to work in a place like that." That is how a primary school teacher responded when IPS asked him why he had not accepted a job in Cameroon's Far North region.

WASHINGTON, Jan 14 (IPS) - The horrific terrorist attack on the French satirical publication Charlie Hebdo has once again raised the question about violence and Islam. Why is it, some ask, that so much terrorism has been committed in the name of Islam, and why do violent jihadists seek justification of their actions in their religion?

COLOMBO, Jan 13 (IPS) - Scenes from the brutal shooting of 12 journalists with the French satirical weekly ‘Charlie Hebdo' have monopolised headlines worldwide ever since two men opened fire in the magazine's Paris office on Jan. 7.

ROME, Jan 13 (IPS) - About a week ago my wife was taken to hospital and diagnosed with pneumonia. She was promptly treated with antibiotics and, wonderfully, is now on the mend.

NTUNGAMO DISTRICT, Uganda, Jan 13 (IPS) - A report published last month by the Montpellier Panel - an eminent group of agriculture, ecology and trade experts from Africa and Europe - says about 65 percent of Africa's arable land is too damaged to sustain viable food production.