Radio Netherlands

Malaysia will investigate claims of police brutality following the death of a demonstrator in a mass street protest for electoral reform, a senior minister said Monday. Riot police fired tear gas and water cannon and arrested more than 1,600 people to end a rally to demand electoral changes on Saturday, drawing intense criticism from human rights groups.

Just hours before South Sudan becomes independent, a mood of joyful expectation swept through its capital, with crowds dancing in the streets and last-minute preparations ahead of Saturday’s ceremony. Processions of veterans, soldiers and civilians marched through central Juba in the hot sun, some dressed in traditional clothing, playing drums and dancing.

Tens of thousands of people took to the streets across Egypt on Friday to defend the uprising that toppled president Hosni Mubarak, directing their anger at the new military rulers over the slow pace of reform. In the capital, flag-waving protesters packed Tahrir Square, epicentre of the protests that ousted Mubarak in February, after a mass weekly Muslim prayer service.

The world is on course to miss United Nations hunger reduction targets set in 2000, despite successes in curbing extreme poverty, a UN report said Thursday. In 2000, the world body’s 192 member states launched eight Millennium Development Goals to be achieved by 2015 and the 2011 progress report showed mixed results on the first target of eradicating extreme poverty and hunger.

UN chief Ban Ki-moon set an October target for rival Cypriot leaders to secure a broad accord on reunifying the divided Mediterranean island, after both parties agreed on Thursday to intensify talks. “I have every expectation that by October the leaders will be able to report that they have reached convergence on all core issues, and we will meet that month in New York.”

Canada was to officially end its combat mission in Afghanistan on Thursday, after nine years of fighting which saw it lose 157 troops and spend more than $11 billion dollars. With popular support for the war sapped at home, most of the nearly 3,000 Canadian soldiers, based mainly in the dangerous battleground of Kandahar, have packed up and gone home.

Thousands of people flocked to a Washington arena Wednesday to celebrate the 76th birthday of Tibet’s spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, who urged followers to mark the occasion by practicing compassion. “Happiness — it is not money, it is not material things, it is not power. It is (inside), full of self-confidence.”

Malaria still kills thousands of people a day. That’s distressing when you consider it is a disease that can not only be combated, but even eradicated. On the occasion of World Malaria Day for year 2011: the irritation, the expectation and the hopes of three prominent Dutch malaria fighters.

By Thijs Westerbeek van Eerten

Over 200 people, Africans fleeing Libya by boat, drowned on Wednesday before reaching safety in Italy. It is just one of many tragedies resulting from North Africa’s refugee crisis, one of the world’s worst, according to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, António Guterres. Many of the refugees who were fleeing Libya in fact came from Somalia, Eritrea and Ivory Coast.

When they were just a few years old, they marched with Gandhi against the laws of an oppressing regime. This weekend a few of the veterans from the 1930 salt march took to the streets again. They were protesting against the democratic government for which they had once fought. The latest nationwide battle is against corruption.