News headlines in February 2012, page 29

Election season in Russia promises to be stormy, as Prime Minister Vladimir Putin emerges as the leading candidate in the presidential race scheduled for March 4 and unresolved issues of voting fraud and voter manipulation spark massive protests amongst opposition groups.

Pakistan has rejected as 'frivolous' a leaked NATO report which claims that the country's security services are helping the Taliban, and suggesting that the group believes it is poised to regain power.

Cuba's communist leaders have mapped out a strategy to modernise their country's one-party socialist model and make it more efficient, which implies making it more inclusive and representative of a society that is increasingly diverse.

There is a tension resonating through Ghana’s airwaves, an electric current fueled by rivaling interests between community radio advocates and Ghana’s National Communications Authority.

China’s response to calls from the West to join an oil embargo penalising Iran for its nuclear programme so far has been to choose the middle course typical of its non-interfering foreign policy of the last 30 years — denouncing sanctions on one hand yet working to protect its national interests on many fronts.