News headlines in March 2009, page 5

In what marks a significant escalation in U.S. involvement in Afghanistan and Pakistan, President Barack Obama Friday outlined what he called a 'comprehensive, new strategy' for the two countries to fight al Qaeda and its local allies.

The African continent is rich in natural resources; but the terms under which multinational companies exploit these resources mean that governments - and Africa’s people - enjoy only a tiny fraction of the benefits.

With Benjamin Netanyahu now close to announcing his government line-up in Israel, the issue of whether and how to include Hamas in Palestinian-Israeli peacemaking is moving to the top of the Middle East agenda.

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper has no choice but to project optimism about his nation's ability to pull out of the economic recession by next year, although various economists and a former central bank chairman have all offered grimmer forecasts that the downturn will persist for a longer period.

South Africa’s ruling African National Congress (ANC) vilified politician and former anti-apartheid trade unionist Patricia de Lille when she made allegations about graft in the country’s notorious multi-billion dollar deal with British, French, Italian, German and Swedish arms manufacturers back in 1999.

A new report from a New York-based think tank and delivered to U.S. President Barack Obama by a signatory who is also a current adviser recommends that Washington forcefully reinsert itself into the Palestinian-Israeli peace process, calling for 'a more pragmatic approach to Hamas.'

While the trial of the notorious jailor of the genocidal Khmer Rouge regime is expected to break new legal ground in Cambodia, justice is not all that people here expect to come out of the war crimes tribunal.

East Timor’s new prosecutor general, Ana Pessoa, says that she is ready to 'strengthen’’ her office through ‘’first of all trying to understand why there are so many pending cases'.

Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi steps down this month, forced out by powerful factions in the ruling United Malay National Organisation (UMNO) that feared his liberal policies and compromising ways with political opponents who wish to dismantle rule by an entrenched elite.

The Barack Obama administration announced this week that it will augment already massive foreign aid to its southern neighbour in a bid to help Mexico fight cartels smuggling drugs into the U.S., as well as sending a series of high-level U.S. officials to Mexico to consult with their counterparts.