News headlines in March 2009, page 27

Extrajudicial executions, difficulty for victims’ families to gain access to justice, persecution of human rights defenders, kidnappings, and continued armed activity by previously demobilised members of paramilitary groups are the main concerns of the office in Colombia of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR Colombia).

'Please help me find a way to have some money for milk,' pleaded Benjawan Marongthong, mother of two young boys and former worker in a garments factory.

As the fires of human misery continue to smolder in Gaza, the situation in Israeli-occupied East Jerusalem is emerging as another potentially explosive issue in, and far beyond, the Middle East.

The Thai government is being showered with rare praise from a traditional adversary, South-east Asian civil society, for the diplomatic high note it struck during a recently concluded regional summit.

There has been a clamour to tighten up oversight and regulation of Ghana’s broadcasters from unusual bedfellows - the state-sponsored National Media Commission (NMC) and the Ghana Journalists' Association (GJA). The bodies have, in separate initiatives, slammed attempts to 'privatise' the state-owned Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC) and have railed against the practices of commercial radio stations.

If the global economic downturn is a crisis with a silver lining for cash-rich Chinese companies intent on bargain deals, it is equally so the image-conscious government whose human right critics have been silenced by the need to cooperate with Beijing on overcoming the recession.

If all goes to plan, passengers will not get to see the beautiful Yitla Stream, or what is left of it, on the train from Jerusalem to Tel Aviv.

Prompt medical care is at last on offer in Iraq, for those who can find the dollars for it.

A wave of violent attacks has been rocking Athens ever since the December 2008 riots that broke out after a policeman shot dead a 15-year-old boy.

As political parties in Indian Kashmir debate the repeal of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) in the insurgency-hit state, civil rights activists hope that this will fructify into a withdrawal of the sweeping powers given to armed forces in this state since 1990.