Finance : Post-Soviet Russian economic collapse (PRIV)
(Vladimir Popov and Jomo Kwame Sundaram, Moscow/Kuala Lumpur)
Moscow/Kuala Lumpur, 19 Jul (IPS/Vladimir Popov and Jomo Kwame Sundaram*) -- Wide-ranging economic reforms following the demise of the Soviet Union at the end of December 1991 mainly resulted in economic collapse in most successor states.

East Africa : Hunger worsened, crops scorched, livestock dead (PRIV)
(IPS, Rome)
Poor rains across East Africa have worsened hunger and left crops scorched, pastures dry and thousands of livestock dead, the United Nations food and agriculture agency has warned in a new alert.

Southern Africa : Marshall Plan to stop voracious crop worm (PRIV)
(IPS, Bulawayo)
Southern African countries have agreed on a multi-pronged plan to increase surveillance and research to contain the fall army worm, which has cut forecast regional maize harvests by up to ten percent, according to a senior UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) official.

Brazil : Shipyards - victims of a failed re-industrialisation process (PRIV)
(IPS, Rio de Janeiro)
"I have lived through three good periods and two bad ones," prior to the present crisis in the Brazilian shipping industry, said Edson Rocha, a direct witness since the 1970s of the ups and downs of a sector where nationalist feelings run high.

Opinion : Will the UN improve LGBTI health and well-being? (PRIV)
(IPS, New York)
While there has been progress in researching the health and well-being of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex (LGBTI) people and responding to certain emerging health threats in high-income countries - elsewhere in the world such research is inadequate and incomplete.