News headlines in February 2009, page 4

In a stunning reversal, Britain’s government admitted Wednesday that it participated in the ‘extraordinary rendition’ to Afghanistan of two terror suspects captured in Iraq.

'The liberation struggle is over. Why are we still killing ourselves?' South Sudan's President Salva Kiir asked a meeting of chiefs, exasperation clear in his usually even-toned voice.

Both parties agreed not to release any details after a second direct meeting between President Marc Ravalomanana and his principal opponent, Andry Rajoelina, the deposed mayor of Madagascar’s capital Antananarivo, on Feb. 23 with no official being issued.

The Amazon Basin captures 12,000 to 16,000 square kilometres of water per year, and just 40 percent of that flows through the rivers. The rest returns to the atmosphere through evapotranspiration of the forests and is distributed throughout South America.

'They started smashing down doors at 2am last Wednesday before moving through homes and destroying property,' says the mayor of Jayyus, Muhammed Taher Shamasni.

It would be easy to walk past the Dapper Museum without giving the building a second glance were it not for the striking images of African women at the entrance. Tucked in a side street of the 16th arrondissement, just off the chic avenue Victor Hugo, the Dapper has an unremarkable facade and lies far from the gleaming Louvre and Orsay museums. But its exhibitions stand out in a city filled with museums, galleries and blockbuster art shows.

Burma’s military regime has set a tough challenge for regional leaders to grapple with when they gather for a summit over the weekend in this resort town south of Bangkok.

A local group of Colombia’s FARC guerrillas acknowledged that it had killed eight members of the Awá indigenous group, who it accused of being army informants.

The political chasm in crisis-riddled Pakistan has deepened after a Supreme Court ruling barred from political office opposition leader Nawaz Sharif and his younger brother Shahbaz Sharif, chief minister of Punjab - the country’s most populous and powerful province.

With new figures showing that 44 percent of Australians were either born overseas or have at least one parent who was, community organisations have welcomed a stepped-up government programme to tackle racial, cultural and religious intolerance.