News headlines in 2008, page 13

Ten days of intensive fighting broke out between Israel and the Islamic resistance organisation Hamas last month despite a ceasefire.

By tabling two of three reform bills, Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi has shown his hand and, not surprisingly, both have run into strong opposition within and outside parliament.

Three years after Marlene Esperat was shot dead in her living room, she continues to symbolise the plight of journalists in the Philippines who are increasingly being victimised or murdered in a country which prides itself on having a free press.

As Japan’s whaling fleet sails south for the annual hunting season, Greenpeace and the Australian government are concentrating their anti-whaling actions on diplomacy and public opinion in Japan.

The outspoken president of the General Assembly, Father Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann, who recently described Israeli policies in the occupied territories as tantamount to 'apartheid', says his life is under threat.

Climate experts meeting in Poznan, Poland, promised to create a new pot of carbon-credit gold for the rural poor as guardians of rural lands and forests.

Agribusiness and landowners’ associations in Paraguay began two days of demonstrations around the country Monday, demanding a stop to invasions of large estates by landless farmers.

As Democratic President-elect Barack Obama prepares to take office in a few weeks, he faces a hungry nuclear industry that wants to be included in his energy plan.

This week’s summit of Latin American and Caribbean leaders in Brazil aims to pull regional integration processes out of their current stagnation, reaffirm the region’s interest in integration that does not exclude any nation, and contribute to overcoming bilateral tensions, analysts say.

The roof of our house is on fire while the leaders of our family sit comfortably in the living room below preoccupied with 'political realities' -- that was essentially the message from 1,000 scientists from around the world along with northern indigenous leaders gathered in Quebec City for the International Arctic Change conference that concluded last weekend.