News headlines in March 2012, page 26

Forty-six years ago, at a Senate subcommittee hearing on migratory labour, U.S. Senator Robert Kennedy listened in disgust as California's Kern County Sheriff explained the arrests of peaceful picketers brought on by mounting pressure from farm owners.

As the besieged government of President Bashar al-Assad continues to violently suppress the warring political opposition in Syria, the United Nations has expressed 'concern' over reports 'on the possible existence of chemical weapons' in the embattled Middle Eastern country.

What does riding a bike have to do with women’s rights? According to the Chilean feminist group Macleta, which promotes cycling and a gender perspective on public transport, a bicycle is a powerful tool for social change.

Another dramatic election fiasco is over. Russian voters have elected Vladimir Putin with an overwhelming 63% majority. In 2000 and 2004, he won with 53% and 71% majority, respectively. Though his victory never seemed in doubt, his election garnered more negative publicity than any other foreign election, thanks to the awesome Russian Spring.

As fingers of morning light slip through the mango and banana orchards of his village, Suchin Utanarat heads out in a boat to net a fresh catch from the nearby canals teeming with shrimp.

Egypt's legal campaign against a handful of foreign NGOs reached a crescendo last week with the repatriation of several U.S. nationals indicted on charges of engaging in unauthorised civil society activity. But many local analysts believe the latest developments - far from signifying the end of the crisis - portend nothing less than a seismic shift in Egypt's longstanding 'strategic relationship' with the U.S.

Intense consultations at the highest level between the U.S. and Israel on how to coordinate their respective strategies vis-à-vis Iran indicate that a strike on the Islamic Republic’s nuclear sites, if launched by Israel, the U.S., or in tandem, wouldn’t occur this spring, probably not even before November.

Women have been at the forefront of each uprising in the Arab world. Last week, the ‘8 Arab Women Filmmakers’ festival offered a platform to Arab women directors to give their perspectives on the future of the region.

The often heroic struggles of some of the world's human rights victims and advocates are on full view at the Toronto Human Rights Watch Film Festival, which runs through Friday at the TIFF Bell Lightbox theatre.

Promising methods of tracking aid funding intended to improve women's and girls' livelihoods also offer the possibility of revealing whether donors and policymakers are walking the walk when it comes to gender financing.