News headlines in March 2011, page 3

A report released Tuesday by the International Labour Organization (ILO) for the Fourth Conference on the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) slated to take place in Istanbul, Turkey in early May expressed a strong critique of the snail's pace of development, but stopped just short of calling for radical new policies to be implemented.

The evidence of Gaborone's inadequate sewerage system hangs in the air over the Botswana capital's low income area. Pit latrines dominate, and residents complain that the city doesn't empty them frequently enough. But the end may be in sight.

Egyptian authorities have opened dozens of criminal investigations into hundreds of millions of dollars worth of public land contracts that were awarded illegally to real estate developers associated with former President Hosni Mubarak without proper procedures at below market rates.

Forces loyal to Alassane Ouattara, the internationally recognised winner of Cote d'Ivoire's presidential election, say they have seized control of another two central towns in their advance toward the country's capital.

The latest elections in Sri Lanka serve as yet another reminder that despite all its follies, President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s government is unshakable.

Linkages between the Libyan uprising and shelling out more money than usual at a local market in the West may not at first seem apparent but the common denominator is oil.

The Fukushima disaster has prompted calls to review legislation passed by Indian parliament in August 2010 that capped compensation payable, in the event of a nuclear accident, at 320 million U.S. dollars.

Kindness Paradza has a mission. After he lost his job as a journalist when the ZANU-PF government closed his newspaper in 2004, he ploughed his life savings into a 2,000 ha farm he received as part of Zimbabwe’s controversial 'land reform programme'.

Thousands of small-scale fishers in Central America are fighting for survival in the face of free trade deals, transnational corporations, mega tourism projects and pollution that is harming marine life.

Caught in a wave of pro-democracy and pro-government protests, the Syrian political landscape seems far more complex than its Tunisian and Egyptian counterparts, where demonstrations ousted decades' old regimes. President Bashar al-Assad’s speech today may however give new momentum to pro-democracy protests.