n the 23rd of January 2013, the Prime Minister of Malaysia paid, what was described as ‘a humanitarian visit' to Gaza City to show ‘solidarity and steadfast support of Malaysia and its people to the Palestinian struggle.' He was received by the Gaza Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh who declared that "this is an Islamic declaration for breaking the Israeli siege on Gaza." In his speech, Najib "admired the steadfastness…

The Xinhua News Agency reported on Friday 18th January that Ma Jiantang, director of China's National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), called for the country's one-child policy to be changed because of the nation's shrinking pool of workers. According to the NBS, the working-age population in China decreased by 3.45 million between 2011 and 2012. In October 2011, the China Development Research Foundation, a think-tank affiliated with the Chinese government, also…

KARACHI - On Friday, December 28, 2012, the 23-year-old Indian medical student who was the victim of a brutal assault and gang raped by six men on a bus in Delhi on the December 16, 2012 died after succumbing to her injuries. Her case sparked mass protests across India against the Indian police and government's negligence and lackadaisical attitude towards the protection of women from sexual violence. Rape had reached…

As 2013 comes to a close, many are warning about the effect of a range of UK government cuts to the funding of public services and how that will affect some of the elderly, services delivered by local councils and may even lead to the closure of hospital wards. Why? Because money is scarce and the government has to reduce the budget deficit so "everyone has to tighten their belt"…