News headlines in June 2009, page 20

At the initiative of the opposition parties, the Peruvian parliament approved the creation of a committee to investigate the clash early this month between indigenous protesters and the police near the town of Bagua in the northern province of Amazonas, which according to official reports left a death toll of 34.

The United States government is coming under intense pressure from rights organisations and environmental groups to redefine its trade pact with Peru, a tool that they charge the government in Lima is using to justify oppression against the indigenous population.

Reducing carbon levels in the atmosphere may be as simple as planting a new breed of hybridised chestnut trees, according to a new study by Purdue University Associate Professor Douglass Jacobs.

Forty-two million people were forcibly uprooted by conflict and persecution worldwide in 2008, said a new report by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) released Tuesday.

As it battles to regain its stature, one of the world's most resilient industries - tourism - is expected to overcome the current global economic recession at least by next year.

Sobbing, an indigenous woman dressed in black cries out as she sees us arrive: 'My son, my son, they have killed my son!' She is Andrea Rocca, the mother of Felipe Sabio, a young man who died in a clash between police and indigenous protesters in the northern Peruvian region of Amazonas.

On Jun. 19, 2008, the U.N. Security Council passed Resolution 1820, expressly addressing the problems of sexual violence in conflict situations. One year later, three experts in the field gathered to speak at the United States Institute of Peace to evaluate the implementation of 1820 and consider how it might better prevent this widespread crime.

As the annual scrimmage for coveted seats in India’s engineering and medical colleges gets underway, what many students dread is the sadistic ritual of ragging - or hazing - that they expect to undergo at the hands of their seniors.

After a protracted court battle of seven years, a small South African environmental organisation won a major constitutional victory against the multinational agri-chemical and seed giant Monsanto.

Four days after Iran's Jun. 12 election, the country remains in a state of shock and turmoil, attempting to come to grips with what happened.