News headlines in January 2011, page 9

In what appalled human rights defenders have described as an episode of 'shame and discredit' for the European Union, Brussels played host to one of the world’s worst dictators Monday.

A growing number of reports in China’s state media have thrust the issue of child abuse into the national spotlight. Many young parents and teachers today have shifting attitudes about corporal punishment, but incidents of abuse are being reported across the country. Affected children are virtually unprotected under the law.

It’s definitely not your typical job advertisement. 'Wanted: Mothers; must be mature, strong and stable, self-confident, humorous and know how to cook; must have a positive and cheerful attitude towards life; must be willing to work as a full-time mother for the long term.'

More than 70 years ago, an elderly Aboriginal man led the only known privately- organized demonstration against Kristallnacht (Night of the Broken Glass), the mass anti-Jewish pogrom across Germany and Austria.

When the Hamas government of Gaza imposed restrictions on shisha (water pipe) smoking several months ago, it wasn’t for health reasons — even though the habit is pervasive in the densely populated strip of land. Rather, the ban targeted only women — and it is being widely ignored despite the firm grip of the conservative Islamic government.

The international community - from Western authorities to Southern powers - lacks courage and hides behind 'soft diplomacy' in confronting human rights abusers, a leading rights group accuses in a 649-page world report released Monday.

The exposure by Al Jazeera and London's Guardian newspaper of a huge cache of documents detailing Palestinian accounts of a decade of peace negotiations with Israel could deal a lethal blow to U.S. efforts to get a credible process back on track, according to experts here.

In her remarks last week to the president of the U.N. Security Council on the first anniversary of Haiti's earthquake, U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice called for a free and fair election that reflected the views of Haitian voters, applauded the work of the U.N. Stabilisation Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH), and declared that the 'prospects for rebuilding Haiti depend upon maintaining a secure environment and creating jobs for Haitians'.

Ecuadorean immigrants have been put in an even more vulnerable position by the lingering economic crisis in the industrialised world, especially in Spain and the United States, the main destinations for migrants from Latin America.

The political stand-off between Alassane Ouattara, certified by the United Nations as winner of Nov. 28 elections, and the incumbent president, Laurent Gbagbo, who has refused to step down, is stretching into its eighth week.