News headlines in July 2009, page 17

Speculation had been rife in recent months that parliament was on the verge of dissolution by order of the presidency. While the rumour ultimately proved unfounded, local analysts say it reflected a rift between the old and new guards of the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) of President Hosni Mubarak.

Israel continues to brush off allegations of human rights violations during its military campaign against Hamas in Gaza launched at the end of December. A series of reports on such violations through the 22-day campaign come soon after completion of fieldwork by the UN human rights four-person fact-finding team headed by South African jurist Richard Goldstone.

The state is back; neo-liberal policies have failed; and the liberalisation of trade should be halted. These are some of the findings and recommendations from the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) for the poorest countries, most of which are in Africa.

The financial crisis could actually boost agriculture in Latin America, Josefina Stubbs, director of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) division for Latin America and the Caribbean tells IPS in an interview.

Elections in early August for local administrative bodies in Jaffna and Vavuniya, two Tamil-dominated northern towns, would be the first litmus test for the Sri Lankan government to restore normalcy in a region devastated by nearly three decades of war.

The government of the state of Sao Paulo in southern Brazil has launched the first hydrogen-fuelled bus in Latin America - the first step towards environmentally sustainable public transport of the future.

'This place used to be beautiful. It was truly a mangrove forest. When the shrimp farmers arrived, we lost 60 percent of it because of the logging,' said Francisco Vásquez, manager of a hotel on the Pacific coast, in the southeastern Guatemalan department of Jutiapa.

Izmir has for years been luring migrants and refugees who dream of crossing into Europe.

After its May trip to Saudi Arabia recently garnered attention, New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) has come under a hailstorm of criticism by defenders of Israeli policy who claim that the trip raises ethical questions about HRW's work in the Middle East.

In the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), tens of thousands of women and girls have suffered horrific acts of sexual violence at the hands of the government army, the Forces Armées de la République Démocratique du Congo (FARDC), said Human Rights Watch in a report released Thursday.