The earthquake was only the latest catastrophe to hit Haiti. Hugh O’Shaughnessy looks back on two centuries of suffering

The death of Professor Nina Fishman who has died of cancer at the age of 63 has robbed the political left and academe of an outstanding social historian. Her special field was labour and trade union history, but her exceptional abilities as a teacher, lecturer and writer were spread across a wide area of labour history encompassing the British (and European) trade union movement, the Labour Party and the British Communist Party.

Inequality under the law in Italy will become a reality if its controversial leader has his way, warns Andrea Mammone

Gary Kent has seen for himself that there can be a hopeful future for Iraq in Kurdistan

Stefan Simanowitz reports on how Aminatou Haidar’s hunger strike exposed Morocco’s continued oppression of Sahrawis

Was China really to blame for the collapse of the Copenhagen summit? Glyn Ford investigates

Will we have to compromise with the Taliban? Kailash Chand draws some difficult lessons from history

Robert Taylor investigates recently released Cabinet papers that document the end of the 1974-79 Labour Government

Legendary film director Ken Loach thinks the EU’s anti-poverty initiative will fail. He tells Kate Holman why

David Taylor, one of the most popular and assiduous Labour MPs, died from a heart attack, aged 63, during the House of Commons Christmas recess. The MP for Leicestershire North West was widely considered by colleagues to be a role model for all backbenchers, in spite of his record of voting against the Government.