News headlines in January 2012, page 23

Damascus has accused Washington of interfering in the work of the Arab League after a U.S. official travelled to Cairo for talks with the bloc about the protest crackdown in Syria.

The recent escalation in Iranian threats to blockade oil shipments and attack U.S. Navy vessels are meant to push up the price of oil and divert domestic opinion from an economic crisis but are not likely to lead to a war in the Persian Gulf, in the view of Iran experts.

After a 15-month collapse, Palestinians and Israelis have met only to agree on sitting down face-to-face publicly once more on Friday. So far there is no breakdown, but no breakthrough either.

The August 2012 elections in Kenya will open doors to massive political participation by women for the first time ever.

In 2011, Brazil's economy grew by less than half the 7.5 percent it attained in 2010. However, this result would be miraculous in any other country with the barriers to productivity and competitiveness that prevail in Brazil.

Suicide bombing is down, bomb attacks are fewer, but the Taliban are keeping up attacks on girls’ schools. In retaliation, a growing number of girls are going for school education — without school buildings.

Weighed down by a 260-million-dollar cut in its budget for 2012-2013, the United Nations is bracing itself for a major austerity drive, including possible layoffs, salary freezes, reduction in official travel and drastic cuts in printed documents.

President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are engaged in intense maneuvering over Netanyahu's aim of entangling the United States in an Israeli war against Iran.

Under a new gender quota law introduced in Mauritius, at least one-third of the candidates in local elections must be women. But the adoption of a national quota is not yet on the horizon, even though just 18 percent of legislators are women and there are only two female cabinet ministers.

Countries that have always depended on imported oil and gas, like Chile, Paraguay, Poland or Ukraine, and especially heavy consumers such as the United States and China, could become self-sufficient in natural gas in the near future and even start exporting it.