News headlines in 2009, page 353

When China’s human rights record comes up for review before a key United Nations panel on Monday, this nominally communist country will have two contrasting accounts of its human rights situation.

When China’s human rights record comes up for review before a key United Nations panel on Monday, this nominally communist country have two contrasting two contrasting accounts of its human rights situation.

Sri Lanka’s ruling establishment has become increasingly intolerant towards the island country’s independent media, even as President Mahinda Rajapakse’s government steps up its military offensive against separatist Tamil militants in the north.

With the current economic crisis, questions are being asked about the viability of further liberalisation as envisaged in the Doha Round at the World Trade Organisation (WTO). In particular, the North’s pressure on poor countries to open financial markets may be ‘‘obsolete’’ because of the role of the financial sector in the crisis.

On Jan 23, days after Barack Obama was sworn in as President of the United States, a series of missiles slammed into Pakistan’s tribal areas along the Afghan border - in continuation of Washington’s policy of targeting al-Qaeda and Taliban elements regardless of sovereignty issues.

'Why did they kill them? Out of physical cowardice. It's what we call murder. Sheer physical cowardice. It's what we call a war crime,' said former lawmaker Sigifredo López, just freed by the FARC, about the massacre of his 11 colleagues on Jun. 18, 2007, when they were hostages of the Colombian guerrillas.

The death of a youth in police custody and the torture of another in a police lockup, in recent weeks, have shocked Malaysians and revived calls for an oversight body - proposed in 2006 by a royal commission but unimplemented because of opposition from senior officers in the command.

As the building of new soccer stadiums and transport infrastructure in South Africa steam ahead, little seems to have come of the agreed assistance by the host of the 2006 FIFA World Cup, Germany, to the 2010 FIFA World Cup host, South Africa.

Brussels officials have rejected calls from three southern African governments for a reassessment of a new trade accord with the European Union.

Among the vital tasks spelled out in the Global Political Agreement (GPA) that frames Zimbabwe's power-sharing government is the drafting of a new constitution. Even before the process begins, it is under challenge from Zimbabwean civil society.