News headlines in April 2009

Esther de Anda has stopped eating pork since the appearance of swine flu in Mexico. 'They say there’s no problem in eating it, but for now I prefer fish or chicken,' the homemaker told IPS.

Australia’s opposition and governing parties have been admonished for attempting to make ‘political capital’ out of the recent spike in asylum seekers trying to reach the nation’s shores by boat.

For 25 years, the Association of Women for Action and Research (AWARE) has been Singapore’s most important civil society campaigner for gender justice.

While Barack Obama has clearly improved Washington's image abroad during his first 100 days in office, the next 100 will almost certainly prove much more challenging for the new president's foreign policy.

The U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is hitting pay dirt with a novel legal tactic designed to catch tax evaders. And it's going to use it to force international banks to give up the names of tax cheats.

The World Bank is dropping an index scored for undermining worker rights from its flagship effort to promote business-led economic growth in emerging, developing, and former Soviet countries.

Within the next twelve months, eight Southern African countries will synchronise their battles against malaria through cross-border collaboration. They hope to eliminate malaria in four of them by 2015.

On Wednesday, a judge at the Hague-based 'Special Tribunal for Lebanon' (STL) ordered Lebanon to release four senior Lebanese generals imprisoned since 2005 on suspicion of involvement in killing former prime minister Rafiq Hariri in February of that year.

The voice of Comrade Duch reverberates daily through the speakers at the 500- seat courtroom in Phnom Penh as he gives testimony in his trial for crimes against humanity.

A new collection of children’s books in Argentina shows women in jobs and professions that are traditionally held by men, challenging sexist preconceptions.