NEW DELHI, Jul 24 (IPS) - Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has won a bitterly contested motion of confidence in his government by 275 to 256 votes in Parliament, securing his government's survival for several months.

NEW YORK, Jul 23 (IPS) - In the name of "global war on terror", the U.S. government is waging war on non-governmental organisations by applying "shortsighted, undemocratic policies" that are "constraining the critical activities of the charitable and philanthropic sectors, stifling free speech, and ultimately impeding the fight against terrorism."

REGISTRO, Brazil, Jul 23 (IPS) - "They won’t let us plant our crops," says Leonila Costa Pontes, referring to the laws that require an environmental permit for her to cultivate her small plot of land.

MEXICO CITY, Jul 23 (IPS) - "Diamond VIP" class prostitutes, who are mainly from Eastern Europe, Argentina, Brazil or Cuba, can charge as much as 2,000 dollars in Mexico, while sex workers from southern Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador or Honduras earn a mere 15 dollars. The price indicates which mafia is handling the women.

BAGHDAD, Jul 23 (IPS) - Welcomed at first after the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, most NGOs have run into scepticism and mistrust. Few remain to help.

MELBOURNE, Jul 23 (IPS) - In this second of a two-part interview, IPS spoke with Julian Aguon -- whose homeland of Guam is soon to receive thousands more U.S. troops -- regarding the island’s economic problems, why Guam matters to Washington and the value of solidarity links between activists who are divided by oceans, yet united in a cause.

PENANG, Jul 22 (IPS) - Anwar Ibrahim, Malaysia's de facto opposition leader, is locked in a political battle of wills with ruling coalition leaders and determined to wrest federal control despite fresh charges of sodomy brought up against him.

PHNOM PENH, Jul 22 (IPS) - Cambodia has entered the final week of its national election campaign shocked by the murder of a well-known journalist and facing an increasingly tense standoff with Thailand over a disputed 11th century Hindu temple.

MADRID, Jul 21 (IPS) - The participants at the World Conference on Dialogue in Madrid have proposed that the United Nations create an interreligious council.

CAIRO, Jul 21 (IPS) - Controversy continues to rise over the fate of a Canadian fertiliser plant currently under construction in Egypt's coastal province Damietta. Residents fear it could adversely affect the environment.

BRUSSELS, Jul 21 (IPS) - When a new round of world trade talks was launched in Doha almost seven years ago, there was no shortage of rhetoric about the need for global cooperation to bring tangible benefits for the poor and the vulnerable. "International trade can play a major role in the promotion of economic development and the alleviation of poverty," noted the official declaration issued by the World Trade Organisation as its conference in the Qatari capital concluded.

MELBOURNE, Jul 21 (IPS) - The tiny island of Guam -- officially an unincorporated territory of the United States -- is soon to be inundated with thousands more U.S. military personnel as the world’s superpower realigns its forces. In this first of a two-part interview, indigenous Guamanian activist Julian Aguon spoke with IPS on issues surrounding the build-up.

BANGALORE, Jul 21 (IPS) - "We don’t know how to read or write, but we make our own films,’’ is how Narsamma, 42, a farmer from Pastapur village in Hyderabad, introduces herself and her colleagues.

HARARE, Jul 19 (IPS) - There is a general consensus in Zimbabwe that the only way out of the current crisis is dialogue between the two main political parties, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) and the Zimbabwe African National Union Patriotic Front (ZANU PF).

NEW DELHI, Jul 19 (IPS) - As the parliamentary floor test for the controversial United States-India nuclear cooperation deal approaches, the domestic political odds seem to be turning against India’s ruling United Progressive Alliance government led by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.