News headlines in June 2010, page 20

Industrial-scale monoculture farming is violating the human rights to adequate food and housing, as well as labour, territorial and environmental rights in Latin America, according to a report released Monday in the Mexican capital.

Ten years ago, the U.S. State Department issued its first annual review of governments' efforts to combat human trafficking. Monday, the report included the U.S.'s own struggles with the problem for the first time.

Tired of being sidelined in the job market because he was over 40, an Argentine computer specialist created a labour exchange for people his age and older, which in just a few months grew to nearly 6,000 people.

Much of the initiative behind the adoption of Kenya’s controversial anti-counterfeit law came from multinational pharmaceutical companies using their membership of a local manufacturers’ association to push for the legislation.

The spectacular glacier Number 15 of Altisana, one of the Ecuadorean capitals' sources of potable water, lost at least 36 percent of its original mass in the last 50 years.

'In Chile, women carry the entire burden of maternity,' says teacher Fabiola Quiñones, who applauds the government's proposal to extend pre- and post- natal leave to six months -- but only if all new mothers who work can have that option.

Lebanon’s record of segregating Palestinians is not much better than that of Israel. Since their exodus here, after the establishment of Israel in 1948, Palestinians have been systemically denied equal employment and social rights.

With thousands of war affected civilians still without livelihood and an economy still reeling from the aftermath of a decades-long conflict in Sri Lanka’s northern region, plans should be in place to revive local economies and jobs, says a top United Nations official.

This year marks 15 years since the bloody war in Bosnia - Herzegovina (BH) ended. Apart from the 44-month siege of the capital of Sarajevo by Bosnian Serb forces there was the massacre of some 8,000 Bosniak Muslim men and boys after the United Nations-protected enclave of Srebrenica fell into their hands.

The Mekong River is steadily emerging as a testing ground for public diplomacy, Chinese style. Beijing, it appears, wants to reach out to its southern neighbours who share the river more as a friendly giant than an imposing bully.