The Regional Media Forum “Subsidizing the biofuels boom: What consequences for Latin America?”, held on 27 - 28 March, 2008, at the Incae Campus, Alajuela, Costa Rica, was jointly organised by the Global Subsidies Initiative (GSI), the INCAE Business School, and IPS Inter Press Service Latin America news agency, as part of an ongoing series of GSI regional media forums designed to lead journalists around the world towards a better understanding of the decisive role that subsidies play in key emerging challenges that face policy makers striving for a more sustainable world. Read more »

On March 25, IPS Japan was invited to give a formal presentation on IPS at the general assembly meeting of the Japanese Parliamentary Group on Global Poverty Eradication and Development Awareness at Lower House Diet member Building, Tokyo, Japan.

The parliamentary group was founded in 2007 by Mr. Toshiki Kaifu, former Prime Minister of Japan and the Honorary Chairman of the group, currently presided over by Mr. Kunio Hatoyama, Minister of Justice, as chairman. Read more »

IPS Africa is looking for a bilingual (French/English) regional editor to oversee editorial production on the African continent. The regional editor works from the IPS Africa headquarters in Johannesburg and oversees bureaus in Benin and Kenya as well as correspondents throughout the continent. The successful candidate will oversee planning and co-ordination of the Africa diary including budgeting, overseeing regional and project editors as well as maintaining a network of correspondents, stringers and translators in the coverage area. Read more »

The phrase ‘Opening Borders’, which appears in this book’s title, also describes what the 21 journalists whose work appear here were doing while reporting on issues that link at least two countries in the Mekong Region. Whether it is writing about the Kunming-Hai Phong railway, delving into perceptions by young Vietnamese and Cambodians of each other’s countries, or analysing the impact of border economic zones, they sought to open their own news borders — by looking at the other side of issues, going beyond usual national perspectives, and stepping far beyond familiar territory and languages. Read more »

Mail and Guardian editor Ferial Haffajee has been appointed as the chairperson of the Inter Press Service Africa board at the annual IPS Africa board meeting in Johannesburg where plans were outlined for increased capacity and growth on the continent. Read more »