News headlines in March 2011, page 21

Connections and money seem to be the only way many migrant workers, refugees and Arab nationals escape prolonged detentions in Lebanon while the majority rarely, if ever, see justice.

When the environmentally-threatened Indian Ocean island of Maldives 'graduated' from the ranks of least developed countries (LDCs) to a middle-income country last January, the graduation was characterised as a milestone in the country's socioeconomic development.

The number of civilians killed in U.S. Special Operations Forces (SOF) raids last year was probably several times higher than the figure of 80 people cited in the U.N. report on civilian casualties in Afghanistan published last week, an IPS investigation has revealed.

For the past three days Hiroko Oogusa, 62 - following orders from the local authorities - has remained in her tightly shuttered home located 40 kilometres from the badly damaged Daiichi nuclear power plant in Fukushima.

Several incinerator facilities that were supposed to turn waste into energy have proven to be white elephants that are now adding to the country’s pollution woes, instead of alleviating them.

Until the nuclear crisis started unfolding in Japan last week, most French citizens did not doubt that the country's 58 nuclear reactors were safe enough to continue operating for scores of years to come.

As the White House and its partners in the international community inch closer to a decision over military action in Libya, while Muammar Gaddafi's forces advance steadily into rebel-controlled territory, some analysts argue that the intervention debate is nearing irrelevance after raging unabated for almost a month.

A large ethnic Russian minority population in Latvia and Estonia, which joined the European Union (EU) along with Lithuania in 2003, has repeatedly complained of discrimination and denial of political and social rights by the three Baltic governments.

On the eve of President Barack Obama's first-ever visit to South America, administration officials and independent analysts say that the emphasis throughout his five-day trip will be very much on the positive aspects and possibilities of U.S.-Latin American relations.

'Wholesale land titling' Colombia's Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Juan Camilo Restrepo announced Tuesday, adding that titles would no longer only be handed over to individuals who file land claims, but to entire groups of people in specific rural areas.