News headlines in August 2011, page 26

Six months since the fall of Hosni Mubarak, the state media organs that once glorified the dictator's policies and glossed over his failures have new leaders. Yet the mindset of decades of authoritarian rule remains intact, say media experts.

About 10,000 people marched through the streets of downtown Jerusalem last week chanting 'The people demand social justice' and calling for access to affordable housing. The demonstration was one of about a dozen taking place simultaneously throughout Israel — which drew nearly 150,000 total protesters — as part of a growing movement against the high cost of housing and living expenses.

Standing in the busy main market place of Mingora, it is hard to think that just two years ago this city in Swat district was under the tyranny of the Taliban.

NATO’s five-month bombing campaign in Libya, run under the guise of protecting civilians, is also killing victims fleeing the conflict, directly and indirectly.

Ecuador sees the loans it has agreed with China as 'good news,' because they are long-term, and all that is required in return is 'oil, and not the horrendous adjustments imposed by the IMF (International Monetary Fund),' leftwing Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa told analysts critical of the size and high interest rates of the loans.

While President Juan Manuel Santos described his government's land restitution policy as 'a veritable revolution' during a speech in northwest Colombia, some 300 far-right paramilitaries were taking up positions less than 100 km from there to fight the effort to return land to small farmers displaced by the violence, human rights activists say.

The city of Cienfuegos, known in Cuba as the 'Pearl of the South', is unique for its spotless cleanliness, the orderly grid pattern of its streets, its 19th century architecture and its air of 'Grande Dame' elegance. Now its past splendours, ravaged by time or left to deteriorate because of economic difficulties, are being restored.

Many public officials in Swaziland do not think that access to information is a public right, but rather a privilege — which can be withdrawn at anytime.

The simultaneous resignations of Turkey’s top military brass last week indicates that the civilian government may finally have more sway over politics than the top generals, according to analysts and activists.

Witnesses' chilling depictions of a new Sudanese genocide at an emergency congressional hearing Thursday quelled any remnants of doubt that a humanitarian crisis is unfolding in the Nuba mountain region of South Kordofan.