News headlines in May 2010, page 26

Six journalists have been murdered in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in the past six years, four of them in the Eastern region. Official investigations have failed to clarify the circumstances of any of these killings.

Pressure is mounting on the U.S. government to investigate reports that inmates from the notorious prison at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan have been moved to a second separate facility - known as the Tor Jail, which translates as 'black jail' - where they say they were held in isolation in cold cells with a light on day and night and deprived of sleep by U.S. military personnel.

Yet another violent string of violent deaths in Venezuela’s prisons, along with the dire living conditions in many of them, have caught the attention of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, which is demanding that the government adopt urgent measures.

If nothing is done to slow the pace of climate change, many small island developing states (SIDS) will be at risk of being wiped out, both economically and literally.

Israeli nuclear whistle-blower Mordechai Vanunu has been sentenced to another three months imprisonment for allegedly refusing to perform community service in West Jerusalem.

The First International Women and Film Festival for Gender Equity drew enthusiastic audiences this month in the Argentine capital, where movies from nearly 40 countries were screened.

In a major decision overturning a George W. Bush-era policy that has been continued by the administration of President Barack Obama, a federal court ruled that it is unconstitutional for the U.S. Treasury Department to freeze a charity's assets - effectively putting it out of business with virtually no due process.

Thirteen years ago a local official in north-east China’s Heilongjiang province tried to extort money from a woman named Liu Jie, who operated a successful cow farm.

Vigorously pursuing those allegedly responsible for Iceland’s 2008 financial crisis, investigators have got issued an international arrest warrant against Sigurdur Einarsson, chairman of the board of governors of the failed Kaupthing Bank.

The Washington Consensus is dead and the state must play a new role in development. The triple crises — economy, food and climate — show the need for a new developmental model as export-led growth and financial speculation in agricultural markets have proven to be disastrous.