News headlines in April 2009, page 3

With the U.S. economy in dire straits, Congressional leaders and President Barack Obama are turning their attention to stopping credit card abuses, including high interest rates, fees, and other practices that are affecting millions of U.S. households.

The United Nations remains virtually helpless as an increasing number of armed groups - described as 'non-state actors' - continue to exploit, abuse and deliberately harm children in battle zones in Asia, Africa and the Middle East.

'I have never experienced anti-Semitism myself, but it’s a phrase that always seems to be in the air,' begins Israeli filmmaker Yoav Shamir’s lively new documentary 'Defamation'. 'Three words seem to appear over and over again: Holocaust, Nazi, anti-Semitism.'

Fiji, a multi-racial, multi-cultural country of 300 islands in the South Pacific, has undergone another coup - the fourth in 22 years. The women of Fiji want their voices to be heard as they work on ways to bring peace back to their country, and they are asking for the United Nations to support their efforts.

More than half of all children in Argentina are at risk of illness because of lack of access to clean, running water, while a large proportion are also threatened by polluting industries and the use of pesticides in agriculture, according to a study by the ombudsman’s office.

A coalition of 19 human rights, faith-based and justice organisations is calling on President Barack Obama to investigate torture they charge was sanctioned by the administration of former President George W. Bush.

The Brazilian government announced it is overhauling the country's energy basket with more emphasis on renewable resources, while continuing to plan for future expansion of local production of traditional fossil fuels, like oil and gas.

Elias Pina sits in a fertile high mountain valley on the border between the Dominican Republic and Haiti. Twice weekly, the side streets fill with Haitians and Dominicans trading produce, used clothing, kitchen equipment and shoes.

As the latest round of Asia’s longest-running guerrilla war winds down, scores of journalists here are experiencing intimidation and harassment for being critical of the military campaign against the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

Pick-up trucks speed westward on the Barth highway that flanks the Israeli border in Egypt's North Sinai region, stacked high with cartons of petrol. They are headed 'for Gaza', the Bedouin residents of Barth village say – through the tunnels that burrow under the Egypt-Gaza border and are filling Gaza's aid gap in the aftermath of Israel's deadly assault on the territory.