News headlines in March 2009, page 20

As reconciliation talks between the various Palestinian factions continue to falter, and peace between Israelis and Palestinians seems even more remote, the chance of Syria and Israel reaching an agreement remains a real possibility.

A group of Israeli environmentalists is campaigning to prevent oil exploration inside a nature reserve by the Dead Sea.

Throw a stone into troubled waters and you won't see concentric circles rippling out. Many stones have recently been thrown into the muddy waters of the Middle East - the Gaza War, Israel's electoral lurch rightwards and the Arab world setting up stall in advance of the Obama Administration preparing new directions for the region.

The closure of two major mines and the scaling down of operations at most mines in Botswana have had a knock-on effect beyond miners in this southern African producer of diamonds.

Where can Vietnamese victims of Agent Orange get justice? Probably nowhere, after the United States Supreme Court refused to hear, this month, a final appeal by Vietnamese plaintiffs against chemical giants Dow and Monsanto.

'There was a time when we used to cast our nets into the river [Indus] and haul in no less than 400 to 500 ‘palla’ fish at one go,' says 70-year-old Hamzo Jat.

The Fifth World Water Forum begins in Istanbul Mar. 16 in the face of some stark facts: of the world's water, 97.5 percent is the sea, and of the remaining, 70 percent is frozen in polar icecaps. That leaves precious little for 6.76 billion people around the world, expected to grow to 9 billion by 2050.

When the European Space Agency (ESA) designed the original CryoSat ice-monitoring satellite, not all scientists accepted global warming as an urgent threat.

With official announcements about a new strategy for the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan expected in the coming weeks, details of the plan are starting to emerge in press accounts which describe a renewed focus on the war-torn Central Asian country and its volatile neighbour, Pakistan.

In the face of threats by Republican lawmakers here that a victory by the leftist FMLN party in Sunday's presidential elections could harm relations with the United States, the State Department is insisting that Washington is prepared to work with any government that reflects the will of the Salvadoran people.