News headlines in May 2011, page 9

The same day that the lower house of the Brazilian Congress approved a reform of the forestry code that would make it easier to clear land in the Amazon jungle for agriculture, a husband and wife team of activists who spent years fighting illegal deforestation in the rainforest were murdered.

'What is happening in Chile isn't justice; it's a pantomime, because under the anti-terrorism law, there is absolutely no way justice can be done,' José Venturelli, spokesman for the European Secretariat of the Ethics Commission against Torture, said on a recent visit to this South American country.

When leaders of the Group of 8 (G8) industrialised nations meet in Deauville, France later this week, there is a strong possibility that politics will take precedence over traditional socioeconomic issues like food security and development aid, which are being overshadowed by the Arab revolution and Palestinian statehood.

The International Monetary Fund will probably continue to be headed by a European after the resignation of France's Dominique Strauss-Kahn, but the debate over his replacement indicates this degree of Eurocentrism is unlikely to prevail the next time a successor is sought.

Despite major underground water reserves and the start of the rainy season, people in the central region of Cuba are anxiously scanning the skies in the face of scant rainfall, which is needed to ease a drought that has become more severe in recent years.

Amid a flurry of meetings in Europe, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton will help to launch a 'global partnership for girls’ and women’s education' here Thursday at the United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO).

Ever since the ousting of Tunisian president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, ordinary citizens have been leading uprisings all over North Africa and the Middle East against unwanted rulers. But what is now known as the 'Arab Awakening' is not confined to people resisting within their own borders. Some Arabs are helping the fight in neighbouring countries too.

The Amazonian town of Mutum-Paraná, in the northern Brazilian state of Rondônia, is disappearing. Its last remaining buildings must be dismantled before it is flooded by the construction of the Jirau hydroelectric dam on the Madeira River.

Very soon wives in Uganda will legally have the right to a share in their husband’s property, that’s if the country’s new speaker of parliament has her way.

Social media is being heralded as a revolutionary weapon for the empowerment of discriminated groups such as migrants. But so far it is the xenophobic far right that has made the most of it.