News headlines in July 2011, page 34

He should be inside a classroom but instead Jawad Ali spends his days selling sandals on the sidewalks of Khyber Bazaar in the city of Peshawar in northwest Pakistan. 'I want to be in school, but it’s not possible now,' said 11-year-old Ali.

The pieces on Venezuela's political chessboard have shifted as a result of President Hugo Chávez's illness and convalescence in Cuba. His surprise return to Venezuela Monday has opened questions as to how the game will be played in future.

A non-governmental organisation set up by five women 25 years ago in Bolivia gave birth to what is now the largest microcredit bank in the country, catering to those otherwise marginalised from the financial system.

Despite the many limitations on access to digital-age technology in Cuba, a taste for computer games is spreading in this country, giving rise to a youthful movement that is beginning to conquer new public spaces.

In August 2007, two Mexicans tried to get their brother into the United States illegally, by hiring a people trafficker or 'coyote' for a fee of 2,500 dollars for the journey. But the would-be migrant never got across the border, and the money disappeared.

One person dies weekly in Kenya due to a shortage of anaesthetics and the situation is worse in slums and rural areas across the country.

Across villages, towns, and cities in northeast Thailand, a mood of political empowerment is bursting to the surface, with people gathering in groups since Sunday evening to celebrate political history. After all, they helped put Yingluck Shinawatra on the road to becoming the country’s first female prime minister.

A day after she led Pheu Thai party to a landslide victory in parliamentary elections in Thailand, Yingluck Shinawatra has announced a new five-party coalition government.

For over four years now, Tendai Dzingirai * has lived each day afraid that it may be his last. Dzingirai is one of almost 60 inmates on death row in Zimbabwe’s prisons. But like the other prisoners, Dzingirai does not know when he will finally meet his fate — especially since the country has not had an executioner for the last six years.

The human spirit has a truly remarkable capacity -the ability to generate hope from the most devastating of crises. This ability to create value can be seen in the response to the earthquake that struck Japan on March 11, writes Daisaku Ikeda, a Japanese Buddhist philosopher and peacebuilder and president of the Soka Gakkai International (SGI).