• Bush Visits Occupied Palestine
• Candidates Iraq Policy Examined
• Bush's Iraq Provisional Reconstruction Teams
• Nigeria's Continuing Gas Flares Devastating Health and Environment
• Sri Lanka 's Tea Estate Workers

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• New Study Estimates Iraqi Civilian Death Toll
• Operation Phantom Phoenix Pounds Area South of Baghdad
• Colombian Hostage Operation Resumes
• Charges Against British Whistleblower Dropped
• Opposition to US-India Nuclear Deal

Although candidates have been campaigning for a year, the race to the White House is just beginning.  New important developments advance the campaigns.  Senator Barack Obama received two major endorsements – one from 2004 Democratic nominee John Kerry. The other is from the hotel culinary workers union in Nevada, the largest and most influential union in the highly organized state which is holding their primary Saturday January 19th.

Another major development is that New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson is dropping out of the race.  He ran his campaign on ending the war in Iraq.  RN’s Leigh Ann Caldwell takes a look at how his exit might affect the rest of the candidates’ position on the war.

Nigeria has again failed to stop western oil companies from flaring gas – which is a by-product of crude oil. Scores of these huge fires blaze in Nigerian oil fields, which contribute to local environmental and health concerns – and some say global climate change. The government has extended its deadline for companies to stop burning gas by another year. Since 1979, the Nigerian government has been setting deadlines to end gas flaring and has been shifting the dates. Sam Olukoya reports from Lagos.

Bells rang at the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem's Manger Square as President Bush visited the historic site in the occupied West Bank. Bush spent Wednesday in Israel, hoping to move forward on a Mid East peace process started in Annapolis in November. And although many analysts lack optimism about the trip, Mark Regev, spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert says he backs the ideas outlined by Bush and Palestine's Mahmoud Abbas. Bush spent Thursday in the occupied Palestinian Territories of Bethlehem and Ramallah, and met with Palestinian Authority leaders. FSRN's Ghassan Bannoura reports from Bethlehem.

Sri Lanka's tea estate community is mainly dependent on daily wages. Workers do not own land or houses, and most of them still live within lines of quarters designed by the British about a century ago. In part two of this exclusive FSRN feature, Ponniah Manikavasagam focuses on the worker's political plight.