Trade : WTO TRIPS Council debates IP and the public interest (PRIV)
(Kanaga Raja, Geneva)
The WTO Council for TRIPS on 13 June discussed a major proposal tabled by Brazil, China, Fiji, India and South Africa, which cited growing concern about the "imbalance between intellectual property and the public interest."

Environment : The high price of desertification - 23 hectares of land a minute (PRIV)
(IPS, Bulawayo)
Urban farmer Margaret Gauti Mpofu would do anything to protect the productivity of her land. Healthy soil means she is assured of harvest and enough food and income to look after her family.

Africa : Drought pushes 1 in 3 Somalis to a hunger knife-edge (PRIV)
(IPS, Rome)
Another famine in former European colonies in Africa and another time in its Eastern region, with Ethiopia and Somalia among the major victims of drought and made-made climate disasters mainly caused by US and European multinational business.