French politics further confirmed its rightward trajectory after the second round of departmental elections on March 29.
There are 101 departments and 4108 councillor positions across the country. Departments are in charge of local roads, school buildings and buses, welfare allowances and various other local issues. But the elections also represent a barometer of the political situation in the country.
The governing nominally centre-left Socialist Party (PS) suffered a humiliating defeat against a right-wing united front headed by the centre-right Union for a Popular Movement (UMP).
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Hundreds of protesters took to the streets of Indiana state capital Indianapolis on April 4 to demand legal protection against workplace discrimination based on sexual orientation.
鈥淣o hate in our state,鈥 read placards carried by protesters. They marched through the city just days after state legislators revised a controversial religious freedom law that failed to provide protection against discrimination.
The left-wing People's Democratic Party (PRD) held its eighth congress in Jakarta from March 24-26. This was the first time its congress was held openly.
The open congress marks an important new stage of development for the party, which has a history of underground organising dating back to the era of the Suharto dictatorship that was overthrown in 1998.
Jay Famiglietti, a senior water scientist at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California, made a dire warning in March: there is only one year's worth of water left in the state's reservoir storage and river basins.
Famiglietti said even nature's oldest water backup supply 鈥攇roundwater 鈥 could be gone soon after the reservoirs dry up.
About 38.8 million people live in California, which produces much of the United States' food. California's drought is throwing the ecology of the region into crisis, and ordinary people are scrambling for ways to help.
There is a tense stand-off right now between Greece's government and the so-called troika 鈥 the European Commission, the European Central Bank (ECB), and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). ECB President Mario Draghi recently went so far as to deny that his institution was trying to blackmail Greece's left-wing anti-austerity government.
But blackmail is actually an understatement. It has become increasingly clear that the troika is trying to harm the Greek economy in order to raise pressure on the new Greek government to agree to its demands.
A new group has been established to campaign for women鈥檚 rights in Indonesia. In December, more than 100 women met in Jakarta to launch Indonesian Women鈥檚 Action 鈥 Kartini (API-K), which has begun campaigning for women鈥檚 rights in the workplace, home and society.
Participants came from 32 cities across Indonesia. They included women who are involved in existing women鈥檚 networks, students, workers and urban poor. They spent three days discussing issues facing women in economics, politics and culture.
The Inconvenient Genocide: Who Remembers the Armenians?
Geoffrey Robertson QC, Vintage Books,
Sydney, 294 pages, 2014
On the eve of Nazi Germany鈥檚 1939 invasion of Poland, Adolf Hitler urged his generals 鈥渢o kill without mercy men, women and children of the Polish race or language鈥.
鈥淥nly in such a way will we win [what] we need,鈥 Hitler said. 鈥淲ho, after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians.鈥
The Nazi leader was referring to the genocide carried out by the Ottoman Turkish empire in 1915 against the Armenian people within its borders.
Fears over the safety of the 18,000 civilians trapped in Yarmouk, south of the Syrian capital of Damascus, have grown following reports that the Islamic State (IS) terrorist group has taken control of large areas of the Palestinian refugee camp.
The IS, notorious for its brutal execution of hostages in the areas it occupies in Iraq and Syria, infiltrated Yarmouk camp on April 1.
Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said on April 2 that his government would strengthen the country's public health system by the hiring of 4500 extra staff and abolishing a compulsory 鈧5 fee for treatment at public hospitals, that day.
The measure forms part of a broad package of reforms aimed at overhauling the country鈥檚 broken medical system by providing universal access to quality healthcare.
The Greek parliament has debated a proposal to establish a committee to investigate loan agreements between previous governments and international lenders, on March 31.
The motion, tabled by ruling anti-austerity party SYRIZA, would examine credit accords dating back to 2009 with organisations including the International Monetary Fund, the European Union and the European Central Bank.
A lot is at stake in Turkey鈥檚 parliamentary elections to be held on June 7 鈥 for the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) as well as the oppressed Kurdish population.
White City, Black City: Architecture & War in Tel Aviv & Jaffa
By Sharon Rotbard
Pluto Press, 拢14.99
In July 2003, Unesco put the 鈥淲hite City鈥 of Tel Aviv on its list of World Heritage Sites. It took almost 20 years of incessant campaigning by the Israeli state to secure this recommendation that, de facto, legitimised far-reaching aspects of Zionist ideology.
But was there any merit to the Tel Aviv case in the first place? In fact, the building of Tel Aviv began adjacently to Jaffa 鈥 one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities of the world 鈥 only from about 1909.
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