News headlines in 2009, page 359

Paraguayan society is marking the 20th anniversary of the fall of former dictator Alfredo Stroessner (1954-1989) amid uncertainty surrounding the loss of power of the Colorado Party, which ruled the country for 61 years.

'The capital has never known such stillness.' Marie Ratonvonirina said of the one-day stayaway declared by the mayor of Antannanarivo, Andry Rajoelina on Jan. 29. The work stoppage was a shift in tactics for the 34-year-old mayor who later declared himself to be in control of Madagascar.

Despite two decades of phenomenal world economic growth, income inequalities between the richest and poorest have steadily increased - a trend likely to be accentuated as economies across the globe begin to contract, experts say.

The immense diversity of peoples was apparent at the World Social Forum (WSF), which ended Sunday in Belém, the capital of the state of Pará in the Brazilian Amazon region.

Twenty-five centuries ago, ancient Athenians set aside part of their agora, the central public plaza, as a place where people seeking temporary work and others seeking workers could meet.

CENTCOM commander Gen. David Petraeus, supported by Defence Secretary Robert Gates, tried to convince President Barack Obama that he had to back down from his campaign pledge to withdraw all U.S. combat troops from Iraq within 18 months at an Oval Office meeting Jan. 21.

Determined to tell its own story to the world Japan on Monday launched its own 24-hour English-language TV news channel - NHK World TV.

Just over a week before they go to the polls, Israelis are in a grim mood. The gloom is fed by the leading candidates, all of whom are seeking to outdo one another in sombre assessment of the challenges that lie ahead.

As fears rise of renewed violence in Gaza, Elena Qleibo, a French-Costa Rican aid worker from Oxfam, gives IPS a first-hand account of surviving Israel's three-week bombardment of Gaza.

Now that former U.S. president George W. Bush is an ordinary citizen again, many legal and human rights activists in Europe are demanding that he and high-ranking members of his government be brought before justice for crimes against humanity committed in the so-called war on terror.