News headlines in February 2012, page 24

Ahmadou Lamine has been forced to close his business selling fuel imported from Nigeria, known locally as 'zoa-zoa', because of the Islamic extremist group Boko Haram.

Moves by the Burmese government to settle ethnic conflicts in the country, notably with the Karen in the mountainous eastern part of the country, have caught most observers by surprise.

When a financial crisis threatened the existence of Africa’s oldest community station, Bush Radio, an outpouring of sympathy and appeals went viral on social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook. However, despite this outspoken support that showed that the station is worth saving, its future remains uncertain.

The lack of transparency in the preparations for the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil is raising concerns over the social implications of hosting the football championship and fears that the country's most democratic and popular sport will only be accessible to the wealthy.

Following a failed bid to pass a U.N. Security Council Resolution calling for regime change in Syria, Washington is considering other means to influence events on the ground, as the country slips ever closer toward civil war.

Since Russia and China vetoed a key resolution critical of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's violent repression of the ongoing 11-month old civilian uprising, there has been plenty of public outrage directed at the two permanent members of the Security Council who stood defiant against an overwhelming majority.

As U.N. Deputy Secretary-General Asha-Rose Migiro once put it, 'Women hold the keys to unlocking the barriers to sustainable development.'

'In the Andes, and all over the world, mining on mountains should be banned. Distinguished scientists and papers in the most prestigious journals are saying this,' a regional planning expert in Colombia told IPS.

Months of protest across the European Union, sparked by ‘indignant’ youth demanding an end to the brand of free market capitalism that has blighted the continent with an unemployment epidemic, finally bore fruit on Jan. 30 when Jose Manuel Barroso, president of the European Commission, proposed an ambitious jobs scheme.

The government of Philippines President Benigno Aquino may be wading into choppy diplomatic waters by turning to the United States to counter China’s aggressiveness in the South China Sea, one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes.