News headlines in March 2011, page 16

Fracha Begam has been unable to come to terms with the deaths of her two teenage daughters, killed by unknown gunmen in the latest incident of violence against women in the Kashmir Valley.

As a U.N. conference on water opens in South Africa today, the country's Council for Scientific and Industrial Research has repeated warnings that the country faces a water supply crisis. Experts attending the three-day conference will consider the challenges posed by growing demands, migration and water resources potentially limited by careless use and climate change.

Congressional candidates nominated by the party of presidential hopeful Keiko Fujimori to stand in the Apr. 10 elections in Peru failed to inform the electoral authorities that they are under investigation for drug trafficking and money laundering.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton last week paid a highly-publicised visit to Cairo's Tahrir Square, the epicentre of Egypt's recent popular uprising. But young leaders of the revolution declined an invitation to meet with her, citing Washington's tepid support for anti-government protesters over the course of the 18-day rebellion.

The fate of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi remains up in the air after the United States and its allied partners began missile strikes over the weekend to impose a no-fly zone (NFZ) in the North African country.

Libyan President Muammar Gaddafi's use of African mercenaries to quell the uprising against his autocratic regime has revived a deep-rooted racism between Arabs and black Africans.

Western powers must prove that their support for human rights is 'on the right side of history' following the forced closure of the only independent international rights group in Uzbekistan, a country ruled by a repressive regime since 1991, rights defenders say.

Local and foreign investment on the African continent is slowly moving away from agriculture and raw materials to manufacturing, services, communication and tourism, despite poor infrastructure and low skills levels.

Conflicting national and electoral interests as well as clashing military and political objectives and potential are jeopardising the U.S.-Europe led military mission to implement the no-fly zone over Libyan territory, as stipulated by U.N. Security Council resolution 1973.

The first black president of the United States visited the first woman president of Brazil: their meeting resulted in modest progress in bilateral relations, but a bitter taste could not be avoided over the announcement, in Brazil, of the U.S.-led air attack on Libya.