News headlines in October 2011, page 12

The U.N. special rapporteur for human rights in Iran defended his new critical report on the country Thursday after it was attacked by Iranian officials, who continue to insist he will not be allowed to visit the country.

The death of former Libyan leader Col. Muammar Gaddafi was hailed here Thursday by both the administration of President Barack Obama and some of his Republican foes as the latest in a series of victories for U.S. foreign policy.

'This is probably the most important day ever for us, the Basque people, since the death of (dictator) Franco in 1975,' journalist and historian Urko Apaolaza told IPS.

A coalition of 29 international human rights organisations is appealing to the 193-member General Assembly to act 'immediately' to help halt the unbridled violence in Syria which has claimed the lives of over 3,000 people, mostly civilians, since the political protests began last March.

U.S. presidents seeking a second term are not known for taking risks in foreign policy in election years.

Brazil is keen to take part in the international effort to expand access to medicines and to produce its own drugs, and will start by becoming the world supplier of medicines to treat Chagas disease.

I came across an anti-Gaddafi demonstration for the first time in February 2011 in Baghdad’s Tahrir square. Zine El Abidine Ben Ali — Tunisia’s former ruler - had left the country a few weeks ago and then Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak would be ousted only a few days later. In the framework of the 'Arab spring', angry Iraqis were also protesting against their corrupt government and the lack of opportunities.

The bill to establish a National Truth Commission in Brazil, which has made it through the lower house of Congress and is now in the Senate, is considered at least a start in clarifying, and preventing a repetition of, the abuses committed during the country's 21-year dictatorship.

Muammar Gaddafi has been killed after National Transitional Council fighters overran loyalist defences in Sirte, the toppled Libyan leader's hometown and final stronghold.

As he sits in a New York jail cell awaiting sentencing on a racketeering conviction, Christopher 'Dudus' Coke has all the time in the world to reflect on the role he played in the downfall of at least two prominent Jamaican politicians, none more so than Prime Minister Bruce Golding.