News headlines in January 2012, page 3

Fighting is continuing in the eastern suburbs of Damascus, according to activists, as Syrian security forces appeared to be reasserting their control over the restive fringes of the country's capital.

Although the latest rhetoric seems to signal a hardening of the historical sovereignty dispute between Argentina and Britain over the Malvinas/Falkland Islands, some experts are sceptical and say nothing will change in essence.

For most Ugandan women, obtaining a commercial loan to start a business has been very difficult. Many do not have the required collateral of land title deeds and many cannot afford the interest rates charged by commercial banks.

Liu Xiaobo, the imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, has been placed at the forefront of the fight for human rights in China once again with a new collection of works published in translation this January.

'It was a dark and dingy room, where an elderly woman asked me to take off my panties, made me sit on a low wooden stool with my legs parted and then did something…I screamed out in pain,' recalls Alefia Mustansir, 40, of her childhood experience.

'I’d say there are around 5,000 of us in the country, but if you ask me next week we may well be under 3,000. After twenty centuries of history in Mesopotamia, we Mandaeans, are about to vanish.' Anxiety about the future of his people is more than evident in the figures given by Saad Atiah Majid, chairman of Basra’s Mandaean Council.

The underground economy in Portugal is booming thanks to the steep increases in taxation and prices demanded by a 'troika' of international creditors to address the country's economic crisis.

The prolonged United States-led war against terrorism has left a large number of people disabled in Pakistan, compelling the government to institute a rehabilitation plan that will include imparting vocational skills.

Three years ago, thousands of Icelanders were standing outside Iceland’s parliament building chanting 'incompetent government' in an attempt to bring down the conservative government that had been seen as responsible for the collapse of the country’s banking system.

For five centuries, Europe has taken it upon itself to enlighten the world, teaching it ways to address and overcome crises, from ideas and wars to missionary work and genocides.