News headlines in June 2010, page 31

The homes of the barrio of Comuna 13, tightly packed improvised brick and concrete structures that take on a semi- rural nature the closer one gets to the murky swift-moving Río Cauca, blanket the hills of the western edge of this city of 2.5 million.

Attempts by media to interview some of the hundreds of Free Gaza (FG) members, who were being deported from Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion International Airport, Wednesday, were thwarted by Israeli authorities.

They were about 1,000 when they began, but that number quickly dwindled to some 400. Now the women working at Try Arm are down to 30, yet those running the cooperative that makes women’s undergarments are determined to succeed.

Coca-Cola, recently indicted for causing serious damage to water and soil in India, might seem like an odd champion of environmental protection.

Deep rift continues between pro and anti-whaling members of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) as Australia Tuesday lodged legal action in the International Court of Justice (ICJ) against Japanese ‘scientific’ whaling, calling for a permanent end to all whaling in the Southern Ocean, an established whale sanctuary and a critical feeding ground for the mighty mammals.

The only son in his family, Maung Maung Oo was forced to marry when he was 24 years old. By then he had been carrying on a sexual relationship with a man for four years — which he continued even after his marriage.

A leading good-government group is asking the U.S. Justice Department to disclose details of its investigation into the deaths of three Guantanamo prisoners in 2006.

Faced with what the Wall Street Journal calls 'one of Israel's worst international relations disasters in years', the right- wing leadership of the so-called 'Israel Lobby' has been pulling out all the stops to defend the Jewish state against global outrage over its deadly seizure of a Gaza-bound vessel in international waters carrying humanitarian supplies early Monday morning.

Less than 48 hours after the Israeli attack on a flotilla of six ships carrying humanitarian aid to Gaza, the most powerful political body at the United Nations acted most ineffectively: it opted for a shaky 'presidential statement' instead of a demanding resolution.

A European diplomat speaking anonymously told IPS that the relocation of six imprisoned opponents of the Cuban government 'represents a positive step in the direction of the release of all political prisoners in Cuba, which we hope will occur soon.'