News headlines in March 2011, page 35

As hundreds and thousands of refugees and migrant workers continue to be caught up in the political turmoil in North Africa, the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is playing a lead role in reaching out to the displaced providing them mostly with food, shelter and medicines.

There are nearly as many female as male scientists in Brazil. But in academia or in private laboratories, women face subtle barriers to career advancement and equal salaries.

Thousands of women farmers in Brazil demonstrated this week against the use of toxic weedkillers and pesticides on crops and in favour of agricultural techniques that protect their families' health.

'Every woman is a woman of frustration. Me, I'm just struggle.' Hanin Zoabi, 41, is a Palestinian Israeli woman, a fighting woman. An elected member of the Israeli Knesset parliament, she is the first woman on an Arab party's list, Balad.

Despite a greater government effort to monitor food safety in the wake of high profile contamination incidents — including the 2008 melamine milk poisoning scandal that killed six infants and made 300,000 ill — the majority of Chinese still feel insecure about the food they eat.

As ‘Flames of the Snow’, a documentary on the ten-year civil war waged by Nepal’s Maoist party played at Kathmandu’s Kumari cinema recently, Maoist chief Pushpa Kamal Dahal 'Prachanda' saluted women who fought in his People’s Liberation Army (PLA).

For the third straight year, views of the United States continued to improve during 2010, according to the annual BBC World Service Country Rating Poll released Monday.

After five years of preparation the international community is expected to launch the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services this year. For some of its proponents, even the decisions of the World Trade Organisation should be subject to its analysis.

The much-feared secret police and intelligence service that protected the regime of former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak by arresting, torturing, and even killing opponents has started a wave of burning documents and evidence that could incriminate them, as calls escalate for abolishing the force altogether and bringing its officers to justice.

She contributed towards building toilets for her community; in return Teresia Wasuka is getting a home to call her own.