News headlines in September 2011, page 18

The arrest of the alleged killers of Brazilian judge Patrícia Acioli, known for her work against organised crime, is seen by analysts and legislators as a step in the right direction in the fight against corruption and impunity.

Bottom trawling, a method of deep-sea fishing, is threatening the existence of ecosystems in the deep oceans, wreaking nearly irrevocable havoc on thousands of species and the very habitat in which they live.

As leaders from around the globe begin gathering in New York City for the annual opening of the U.N. General Assembly (UNGA), Republican lawmakers in Washington are calling for a major overhaul of the world body that would almost certainly result in huge cuts to its budget and operations.

Lucía and her family left their village in Guatemala village at 8:00 am to join the Peace Caravan, but they had to wait for six hours at the Rodolfo Robles bridge between Ciudad Tecún Umán, in Guatemala, and Ciudad Hidalgo, in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas.

'Syria is on fire,' says one exasperated U.N. diplomat, 'while the Security Council fiddles.'

Critics call it 'the Secrecy Bill'. And it comes at a time when several African countries are adopting promising new legislation on access to information. But campaigners say South Africa's draft Protection of Information Bill represents a step backwards.

The future education of Swazi children remains uncertain, as public schools across the country have not reopened for the new term because government has not been able to pay for their upkeep.

In many of the countries that permit execution for drug offences, the majority or even all of those on death row are foreigners, according to a new report by Harm Reduction International (HRI).

Despite months of frustrated efforts to secure a full and impartial investigation into possible laws-of-war violations during the last phase of Sri Lanka's civil war, which ended in 2009, leading human rights advocates in the U.S. launched a fresh charge on the island nation's government this week, vowing that, 'If the Sri Lankan government won't provide justice for victims, the international community will.'

The dismissal of Óscar Álvarez as minister of security in Honduras, after he proposed a bill that would have allowed him to purge the police force of corrupt elements, has raised suspicions about the political influence of drug cartels.