News headlines in 2009, page 376

The three-week-old war in Gaza - halted Saturday by an Israeli ceasefire - has had a polarising effect on the U.S. Jewish community, resulting in a deeper and at times acrimonious split between dovish groups that are sceptical of the Israeli military campaign, and centrist and hawkish groups that have been broadly supportive of it.

Just as the foreign policy of U.S. President George W. Bush was characterised by a continuous battle for control between hawks led by Vice President Dick Cheney and realists based primarily in the State Department and intelligence community - and, in its last two years, the Pentagon - so the incoming of administration may find itself split along ideological lines.

As Israel's military aggression in Gaza stretched to nearly a month, the 192-member U.N. General Assembly passed a resolution Friday evening calling for an immediate ceasefire.

The leftist FMLN is the front-runner in the polls for Sunday’s parliamentary and municipal elections in El Salvador, and analysts say a victory would boost its chances of winning the Mar. 15 presidential elections.

'Did you know they want to throw God out of Bolivia?' asks a television spot frequently broadcast by opponents of leftwing Bolivian President Evo Morales ahead of the Jan. 25 referendum on constitutional reform.

A French weapons firm has acknowledged for the first time that it has sold stun-guns to Senegal, where they have been reportedly used against journalists covering football matches and political protests.

Since the outset of Israel's war on the Gaza Strip, calls have been renewed for an 'international force' to protect the civilian population. But Palestinian resistance factions, chief among them Hamas, reject the idea outright.

A work of art exhibited this week in Brussels has turned out to be an unusual test for whether some Europeans are able to laugh at themselves. Just as the artist intended.

The global financial crisis has hit Brazil’s labour market and shaken the trade union movement from its slumber after several years of economic boom and employment growth.

The worsening recession is hitting foreign workers from the ex-Soviet republics far harder than it is affecting Russians.