News headlines in June 2010, page 18

In a bold attempt to stoke public debate on national healing, an art exhibition is challenging the government to publicly acknowledge one of the most hideous episodes in Zimbabwe's history.

Under intense international pressure Israel declared last week that it would ease its crippling blockade on Gaza by permitting an additional but limited number of daily items, including food, into the coastal enclave.

Basudev Dalai, 43, never thought that the fishing village where he has lived all his life and which has been home to generations of fishermen like him would be embroiled in violent clashes over the very source of their livelihood.

The report, released Tuesday by the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), called on the White House to back up its rhetoric of denouncing North Korea's weapons programme with actions to change Pyongyang's behaviour and ensure stability in the region.

Few doubt that former defence minister Juan Manuel Santos will be the next president of Colombia, and that he will continue the policies of President Álvaro Uribe. Santos, as Uribe's heir, will basically be more of the same.

Gangs and armed groups may rank below militaries and law enforcement agencies in the possession of firearms, but 'they have consistently shown a willingness to use guns and use them for violence,' says Dr. Jennifer Hazen, a senior researcher with the authoritative Small Arms Survey.

When two widely-divergent investigative panels launch their probes on the recent Israeli attack on a flotilla of ships carrying humanitarian aid to Gaza, one of the disputed issues under scrutiny would be the legality of forcibly boarding a vessel in international waters.

As a major high-level meeting on the Millennium Development Goals approaches at U.N. headquarters in September, anti- poverty and human rights activists are stepping up efforts to have their voices heard.

If China needed another prompt that the European powers have finally woken up to the fact they were losing the competition for the Africa pie, it came with France’s bid to recapture lost ground this month.

The face of politics is changing in the southern African country of Malawi. And civil society is making plans to ensure that it changes even more.