News headlines in 2011, page 189

With U.S. and Western military forces planning to gradually withdraw their troops from Iraq and Afghanistan, there will be an increasing demand for private military contractors to provide security in both politically-troubled countries.

Reviving U.S.-Iran friction over Iraq may have more to do with deteriorating relations over Iran's nuclear programme than with uncertainty over U.S. troop levels in Iraq beyond the end of this year.

When the Republic of South Sudan gained independence from the north, it was more than a geographical split. Families in South Sudan and Sudan could be forced apart as both countries wrangle out the issue of citizenship and who belongs where.

As the world watches the "Arab Spring" unfold in the Middle East -a reaction against decades of oppression and suppression of civil society- there are disturbing signs that Israel is stealthily moving to dismantle some key civil rights and quiet the voices calling for justice and equality for the Palestinians, write Jody Williams, Nobel Peace Prize in 1997 for her work to ban landmines and Rachel Giora of the Coalition of Women for Peace, based in Tel Aviv.

Local women's voices have begun to be heard over a community radio station now broadcasting in Complexo do Alemao, a clump of favelas or shantytowns on the north side of this Brazilian city that were ruled until recently by armed drug gangs.

Fear is growing among environmental and indigenous organisations in Chile over the possible appropriation of native seeds by foreign companies, opening the doors to transgenic crops and their negative impact on biodiversity.

Senior officials under the former George W. Bush administration knowingly authorised the torture of terrorism suspects held under United States custody, a Human Right Watch (HRW) report released here Tuesday revealed.

The head of the United Nations refugee agency has described the situation in drought-hit Somalia as the 'worst humanitarian disaster' in the world, after meeting with those affected at the Dadaab refugee camp in Kenya.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) is alarmed about the situation in the Horn of Africa, where a 'devastating drought' has forced people to abandon their houses and become refugees, the Under-Secretary- General for Humanitarian Affairs, Valerie Amos, told reporters Monday, following a visit to Nigeria and Ethiopia.

Only two in every five people in the Southern African Development Community has access to safe water for drinking and household use. Three quarters of those lacking access, live in rural areas and the majority of these are women and children.