News headlines in January 2010, page 13

Barely a month after world leaders gathering in Copenhagen reached a weak accord on climate change, the European Union's top polluters are fighting a fresh battle to dissuade policy-makers from taking more robust action.

An old rite is long overdue in Paul Yugusak Tombe’s home village, in Central Equatoria State, south Sudan.

Charity Mwansa, a former minister and member of parliament, knows just exactly what being one of the very few female politicians in Zambia means. When she left politics it had nothing to with not being able to do the work and instead had everything to do with the mad world of male-dominated politics.

Sri Lanka’s nearly three decades of civil war may be over, but questions about war crimes and gross human rights violations committed during the final stages of that battle in 2009 continue to haunt the South Asian nation.

'I want justice. That will be a kind of peace,' says Micaela, a 40-year-old woman from the Andean region of Peru who is a survivor of the sexual violence prevalent during the 1980-2000 civil war. Twenty-five years ago, soldiers assaulted her at a military base and in her own home.

Allegations of money laundering within the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) appear to have dashed hopes that the ruling party would distinguish itself from the scandal-plagued conservative administration that had ruled over Japan for almost half a century.

For young Icelanders at a loose end the Fjolsmidjan (multi-workshop) can prove to be a turning point.

Israel is lashing out at international criticism and attempting to crush local dissent in what appears to be growing sensitivity to reproach of its policies.

In a world beset with conflict, natural disasters and economic crisis, the 2010 Sydney Festival has been a celebration of human connectedness, bringing together 1,500 artists from 30 countries, performing to an audience of a million over a period of three weeks, beginning on Jan. 9.

Organisers of a protest march against the expulsion of Muslim cleric Sheikh Abdullah El Faisal say Kenyan police have arrested up to 400 people and are interrogating them to prove their nationality and try to uncover links to terrorism.