News headlines in March 2011, page 18

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.

Thousands of protesters brought the Swazi capital of Mbabane to a standstill Friday as they took to the streets to oppose imminent salary cuts to civil service wages - and demand changes to the country's government.

The decision by the German government not to support the U.N. Security Council resolution adopted last Thursday to establish a 'no-fly zone' in Libyan airspace, expresses a widespread concern in Germany against military interventions abroad.

At the 331st meeting of the Committee on the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People held at United Nations headquarters Thursday, delegates made speeches most likely doomed to be lost in the abyss of countless Security Council resolutions, numerous rulings by the International Criminal Court (ICC) and the basic provisions of the Geneva Conventions.

India cannot match rival China’s massive investments in Africa, but it is using its information technology capabilities and its affordable university courses to stay relevant on the continent.

Despite deep historic tensions between the two Asian powers, a surge of sympathy has emerged among Chinese toward victims of last week’s earthquake and resulting tsunami in northern Japan, which has left an estimated 10,000 dead or missing.

Wearing rolled up trousers and a spattered shirt, Carlos Frías mixes mud, water and manure to prepare a row of red bricks.

Libya's government has announced it will halt all military operations in the country hours after the United Nations Security Council backed a no-fly zone over the country.

Elizabeth Phiri was so incensed when she was overlooked as a parliamentary candidate for the Patriotic Front in a 2008 by-election on the basis of her gender that she quit the party. Four years on, she has rejoined the party but remains pessimistic - but other women politicians see reasons to hope the 2011 elections will be different.

In the U.S. city of El Paso, Texas the media sounded the alarm: six murders committed in just two months, more than the 2010 total of five. Just across the Mexican border, in the sprawling border city of Ciudad Juárez, no one doubts that this year's homicide rate will surpass last year's record: 3,111.