News headlines in 2009, page 271
RIGHTS: Britain Tries to Block CIA Rendition Case
- Inter Press Service

British High Court judges are expected to rule this week on whether a document by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency can be publicly disclosed, thus opening the courthouse door to a lawsuit charging that the British government was complicit in facilitating the rendition of a British resident by the CIA, which tortured and secretly imprisoned him at Guantánamo Bay.
POLITICS-US: Obama’s Uighur Problem
- Inter Press Service

The probability that some Guantanamo detainees will soon be released into the U.S. will place the administration of President Barack Obama in the eye of a major political hurricane.
Q&A: 'Springtime of Hope' Seen for Nuke Disarmament
- Inter Press Service

When he addressed a massive gathering in the Czech capital of Prague last month, U.S. President Barack Obama made a historic statement pledging that his country will take 'concrete steps towards a world without nuclear weapons.'
RIGHTS-IRAN: Damaging Forced Confessions
- Inter Press Service

Iranian political refugees living in India say there is an all too familiar ring about the supposed confessions of arrested journalist Roxana Saberi, which they expect to see footage of on television soon.
RIGHTS-IRAQ: U.N. Report Paints Grim Picture
- Inter Press Service

Iraqi prisons are torturing detainees, locking people up for months without charges and, in most cases, allowing the perpetrators of these human rights to escape justice, according to a new United Nations report.
MIDEAST: Environment Emerges as a Major Casualty
- Inter Press Service

Countless fruit groves across the Gaza Strip are now gone, entire farms bulldozed. The remains of thousands of destroyed homes emit toxic asbestos, while dilapidated infrastructure dumps raw sewage into the Mediterranean Sea. An already deepening environmental crisis in the besieged Gaza Strip has been further compounded by the recent war.
ICELAND: Living With Ghost Towns
- Inter Press Service

Icelandic municipalities are being forced to repay individuals who had been allocated building land in new residential areas but can no longer afford to build.
MIDEAST: Pilgrim of Peace Heads for Land of Strife
- Inter Press Service

Pope Benedict XVI says his visit to the Holy Land will be as a 'pilgrim of peace': the pontiff's pilgrimage starts in Jordan Friday (May 8) and continues on from there to Palestine and Israel.
EUROPE: Democracy Failing Under Russian Shadow
- Inter Press Service

Eighteen years after the collapse of the Soviet Union, many of the newly created republics are still struggling to find a working democracy amidst failing economies.
POLITICS-US: AIPAC Conference Comes Amid Turmoil
- Inter Press Service

The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), Washington’s powerful and hawkish pro-Israel lobby, kicked off its annual policy conference this weekend during a period of unusual turbulence both for the organisation and for the U.S.-Israel relationship.
Global Issues