News headlines in March 2011, page 25

The international community's efforts to deny embattled president Laurent Gbagbo access to funds from cocoa exports have resulted in hundreds of thousands of tonnes of Ivorian cocoa surfacing in neighbouring countries. Producers say not only are they selling their perishable crop to black market buyers for a fraction its market value, they are being unfairly victimised by the political situation.

Monday's arrival of 1,200 Saudi and 500 Emirati security forces with a mandate from the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) to support King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa's regime in Sunni- ruled, Shiite-majority Bahrain only stokes sectarian conflict and fuels the regional power politics between U.S.-Saudi hegemony and an increasingly influential Shiite-led Iran, analysts here argue.

With Libyan government forces advancing towards the rebel capital of Benghazi, the time for possible military intervention by the U.S. and its NATO or other allies appears to be running short.

As it projects its political and economic power in Asia - and vigorously pushes its longstanding claims for a permanent seat in the United Nations Security Council - India is also steadily strengthening its military might in the sprawling continent.

The unfolding nuclear catastrophe in Japan, triggered by last Friday's massive earthquake and tsunami, followed by a chain of explosions in atomic power plants, has forced the German government to rethink its own nuclear energy policy.

Desperate efforts by the government to avoid the looming nightmare of a nuclear meltdown in tsunami damaged Fukushima nuclear plants, 240 kilometres north of Tokyo, have brought no relief to the public who face the possibility of another explosion that could spew deadly radiation across the country.

Commodity producers are again reaping the benefits of high growth, particularly from high- demand importers, like China, and are increasingly formalising their integration into global commodity value chains. There is a growing recognition that, properly managed, resource rents can provide an important tool in the fight against poverty. At the same time however, there are serious concerns about the way in which commodity markets have been evolving in recent years. Since mid-2010, commodities have, for the second time in 3 years, been experiencing extremely high price volatility, which is exacerbating problems for producers, traders and consumers, writes Supachai Panitchpakdi, Secretary-General of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).

The graves at a cemetery in Moach Goth have no epitaphs, no verses from the Koran, not even the names of the deceased. The only inscription on the small wooden signs that serve as headstones is a number and the date of burial. The latest one is Number 72,315.

The 15-year jail sentence handed down over the weekend to U.S. citizen Alan Gross, who was found guilty in Cuba of 'acts against the independence and territorial integrity of the state,' is part of a new chapter in the conflict between Havana and Washington, which is now playing out in cyberspace.

In two rooms in a small Mozambican coastal town, 70 women are cutting, weaving and packaging fabric carpets destined for eclectic design and homeware stores in Denmark and, soon, Brazil and South Africa.