News headlines in July 2013, page 9

ATLANTA, Georgia, Jul 19 (IPS) - A wide variety of individuals and organisations have filed lawsuits challenging the National Security Agency (NSA) and other federal agencies and officials for conducting a massive, dragnet spying operation on U.S. citizens that was recently confirmed by whistleblower Edward Snowden.

WASHINGTON, Jul 19 (IPS) - The Egyptian military's removal of the democratically-elected President Mohamed Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood from power upended the MB's 20-year old political participation programme. If the new regime aims to achieve genuine reconciliation and political consensus, the MB and its supporters must be included in the restructuring of Egyptian politics.

QUITO, Jul 19 (IPS) - Ecuador's new media law introduces guarantees to democratise communications. But it has come under fire from critics who say it could set limits on investigative journalism. Many doubts will only be answered once its regulations are passed.

GONDAR, Ethiopia, Jul 19 (IPS) - Since the violence that ensued after the ruling party won Ethiopia's 2005 elections, this East African nation has seen little in the way of political dissent. That is, until the last few months.

LONDON, Jul 19 (IPS) - Ervand Abrahamian, a leading historian of modern Iran, has recently explored the 1953 Anglo/American-sponsored coup that overthrew Iranian Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddeq.

ARIEL, Occupied West Bank, Jul 19 (IPS) - As the European Union delegitimises the settlement enterprise further by officially announcing that, effective Jul. 30, its 28 member states are required to differentiate between pre-1967 Israel and Israeli-occupied territories, Israelis supportive of a two-state solution vigorously lead their own boycott campaign against this settlement town of 20,000.

WINDHOEK, Jul 19 (IPS) - Southern Africa has to settle in for another round of negotiations after talks on Economic Partnership Agreements failed to produce results in June, bringing countries closer to losing access to the lucrative European Union market.

ST. AUGUSTINE, Florida, Jul 19 (IPS) - While debating a high frequency trader recently, I encountered the familiar rationalisations that high frequency trading (HFT) contributes to liquidity and price discovery in markets. Assertions about liquidity are hard to justify after the "flash crash" of May 6, 2010, where the "faux liquidity" of HFT disappeared when needed and the traditional market-making obligations of the old specialists were absent.

WASHINGTON, Jul 18 (IPS) - A broad spectrum of interests are urging U.S. lawmakers to extend a law offering trade preferences to developing countries, slated to expire at the end of the month.

TOKYO, Jul 18 (IPS) - Efforts to protect the critically endangered Iriomote wildcat, a spotted, shy, feral creature native to the tiny Iriomote Island that forms part of the Okinawa Prefecture in southern Japan, are becoming a highly respected model of conservation here, where the government's uneven track record in protecting imperiled species has frustrated wildlife activists for decades.