News headlines in 2009, page 384

Egypt's official press has recently alleged an 'organisational relationship' between the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood (MB) opposition movement and Palestinian resistance group Hamas, currently facing the brunt of Israel's war on the Gaza Strip. MB spokesmen, however, say their relationship with Hamas is purely ideological.

Vendors at a bustling municipal market in this provincial city are fairly open about the need for Thailand to have a proper democracy with regular elections. In fact many of them wear red shirts to announce their political choice.

Central Europe and the Balkans face a halting of industrial production, closed schools, frozen water supply pipes and eventual economic paralysis as suspension of gas deliveries stops life in the region.

Although the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush and Israeli leaders have depicted the ongoing crisis in Gaza as part of a larger struggle against Iran and its 'proxies', Tehran's involvement with the Palestinians is rather limited.

A United Nations report that Israel ordered civilians into a building and then shelled it marks yet more evidence of widespread targeting of civilians in the Gaza assault.

Six weeks after the Mumbai terrorist attacks precipitated a grave new crisis in their mutual relations, the danger of a military conflict breaking out between India and Pakistan has receded.

India’s government, its corporate sector and its people are stunned after the founder-chairman of one of the country’s largest information technology (IT) services companies admitted to years of falsified profits and an audacious financial fraud worth 1.5 billion dollars.

As the war in Gaza approaches its third week, a chorus of influential voices in the U.S. media has cast the conflict as a proxy war in which the real enemy is not Hamas but Iran.

Announcing his choices for top intelligence positions on Friday, President-elect Barack Obama was lauded by some for breaking strongly with the policies of the outgoing Pres. George W. Bush administration, while other observers offered sharp criticisms.

As the Israelis try to justify the massive loss of civilian life in Gaza, their arguments and counter-charges continue to be shot down either by the United Nations or by international human rights organisations.