News headlines in June 2009, page 2

The concerted effort of international human rights activists to rein in violations of laws of war was given a major impetus when Human Rights Watch researchers presented a report Tuesday on the unbridled use by the Israeli military of unmanned combat aerial vehicles (UCLAV), commonly known as drones, during Israel's 22-day assault on Hamas in Gaza at the beginning of the year.

Caribbean leaders are due to meet for a full working week starting Thursday to discuss issues ranging from climate change to the global economic crisis.

U.S. combat troops pulled out of most Iraqi cities Monday, a day before the Jun. 30 deadline for their withdrawal in accordance with the Status of Force Agreement (SOFA) ratified by the Iraqi parliament in November 2008.

After weeks of negotiations, the conclusion of the UN High Level Conference on the Financial and Economic Crisis (24-26 June) was a huge disappointment, writes Sylvia Borren, co-chair of the Global Call to Action Against Poverty (GCAP) and Worldconnectors.

MIAMI, Jul (IPS) Recently Bob Roach, Chief Investigator of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations of the US Senate, took part in a conference in Miami organised by Offshore Alert, a specialised media organisation focused on financial crime.

Many around the world look to the United Nations conference on the global financial and economic crisis this week with great expectations, as it should be the start of a process that could bring the UN into the forefront of tackling the greatest economic crisis in half a century, writes Martin Khor, Executive Director of the South Centre, Geneva.

It is said that a French politician, asked whether Brazil had a good future, answered with scorn and knowing irony, "Brazil has always had, still has, and will always have a magnificent future." It would seem that the country has suffered for decades under this sort of stigma, writes Joaquin Roy, ''Jean Monnet'' professor and Director of the European Union Centre of the University of Miami.

This year's theme for the forum of the Literary Chiasso festival in the enchanting Swiss town was "nostalgia for the future", a subject that revealed with striking clarity the worries of thinking people today, writes Leonardo Padura Fuentes, a Cuban writer and journalist whose novels have been translated into a dozen languages.

The current global economic downturn is contributing significantly to deeper poverty and hunger across the world. Preliminary estimates indicate that more than 100 million could be dragged into hunger as a consequence, writes Jacques Diouf, Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO).

Although the pace of capital investment in agricultural has slowed, there has been an intensification of the appropriation of natural resources that are still available. Recent years have seen a noticeable capitalist offensive to buy up more areas with biodiversity, mineral reserves, and sources of water and energy, writes Joao Pedro Stedile, an economist and a member of the Movement of the Landless (MST) and of Via Campesina International.