News stories by IPS Correspondents, page 64

UNITED NATIONS, Nov 19 (IPS) - The United Nations (U.N.) Security Council authorised the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) Saturday to carry out air strikes on Croatia to reinforce defence of the Bihac protected zone of Bosnia-Herzegovina.

LONDON, Nov 19 (IPS) - When fighting started between the Angolan government and rebel troops in Huambo last year, 12-year-old Maria, orphaned by the two-decade long civil war, was brutally raped by the rebels and became pregnant.

DRESDEN, Germany, Nov 19 (IPS) - Trade liberalisation and excessive exports can precipitate environmental degradation in the South when appropriate policies are not in place, according to an official of the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

BEIJING, Nov 19 (IPS) - Chinese President Jiang Zemin's three-day visit to Vietnam scheduled to begin Saturday is being touted both by Beijing and Hanoi as a watershed in the three years of a revitalised -- but still tenuous relationship -- between the two communist powers.

SYDNEY, Nov 19 (IPS) - How to share marine resources took much of the time of delegates at the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) meeting in Kingston this week, but half a world away, Australians were alternately marvelling and worrying over the size of a new exclusive economic zone they got due to the treaty.

DHAKA, Nov 19 (IPS) - SELIM, 28, A SCIENCE GRADUATE, EKES OUT SEVEN DOLLARS EVERY TWO MONTHS BY DOING BACK-BREAKING MENIAL JOBS IN HIS DISTANT VILLAGE TO BE ABLE TO MAKE REGULAR FORAYS INTO THIS CAPITAL CITY IN SEARCH OF EMPLOYMENT.

KATHMANDU, Nov 19 (IPS) - NEPAL SATURDAY WAS POISED TO BECOME THE FIRST COMMUNIST MONARCHY IN THE WORLD AS THE OPPOSITION UNITED MARXIST LENINISTS (UML) CONSOLIDATED THEIR LEAD AND BEGAN PARLEYS WITH OTHER PARTY LEADERS TO FORM A GOVERNMENT.

DAKAR, Nov 19 (IPS) - The woman in the conference centre exhibition hall is 65 years old and she has travelled from afar.

LAHORE, Nov 19 (IPS) - PAKISTAN'S FLEDGLING GREEN MOVEMENT IS DETERMINED TO BLOCKADE THE IMPORT OF A CHLOR-ALKALI PLANT BY A PRIVATE FIRM FROM DENMARK BECAUSE OF ITS USE OF POLLUTING TECHNOLOGY.

LAHORE, Nov 19 (IPS) - PAKISTAN'S FLEDGLING GREEN MOVEMENT IS DETERMINED TO BLOCKADE THE IMPORT OF A CHLOR-ALKALI PLANT BY A PRIVATE FIRM FROM DENMARK BECAUSE OF ITS USE OF POLLUTING TECHNOLOGY.