News headlines in April 2010

A woman alone: Josephine Bangali fetches water from the well to set to boil over a wood fire so she can sterilise her instruments.

Crouched on an upturned plastic box, Eva Angelino bounces 11-month old Odelina on her knee, trying to stop her crying. Mother and daughter are waiting in line outside a public health centre not far from the city centre of Angola’s capital Luanda.

It took the conviction of five Lithuanian men in March, on charges of bringing a 19-year-old girl into Iceland for sex work, before this country truly woke up to the reality of trafficking.

Friday marked the last day of the two-week Ninth Session of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, with attendees expressing optimism but also concern about the ongoing encroachment of industrial and development projects into native lands.

Ten years after a United Nations Security Council resolution aimed at re-evaluating women's roles in U.N.-brokered peacekeeping efforts, women are still underrepresented in the peacekeeping process.

Honduran President Porfirio Lobo plans to seek help from police forces in Colombia and the United States to try to solve the murders of seven journalists committed in the space of less than two months, which will also be investigated by a delegation from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights next month.

At least eight U.S. states are considering proposals to start state-run banks in the wake of an economic crisis where many private banks ceased or greatly decreased their lending, literally shrinking the money pool available in state economies.

A small group of feminists demonstrated outside the Metropolitan Cathedral in the Chilean capital Thursday to express their condemnation of an influential Catholic priest accused of sexually abusing at least five teenagers.

The Pentagon was still trying to spin its report on the war in Afghanistan issued this week as holding out hope because the instability had leveled off, even as some news outlets were noting that it documents the continued expansion of Taliban capabilities and operations.

For many former Yugoslavs, May 4 will be a day to reflect on the 30 years since their charismatic but controversial leader, Josip Broz Tito, died.