News headlines in February 2010, page 5

The United States needs to take on a more aggressive presence in peace negotiations between the Israelis and Palestinians, according to a major report published earlier this month by the James Baker III Institute for Public Policy at Rice University.

The past two years have witnessed the emergence of a powerful movement opposing the construction of new coal-fired power plants in the United States. Initially led by environmental groups, both national and local, it has since been joined by prominent national political leaders and many state governors.

Peru's lack of disaster prevention policies and measures, combined with climate imbalances in South America, have led to the loss of dozens of lives and thousands of homes in this Andean country in the last few months.

Activists continue to protest against the French government’s handling of undocumented migrants, in a bid to secure more humane laws and treatment.

Amid news of the Pakistani government’s arrest of another Taliban leader and a suicide attack in the volatile Swat district this month, residents here are bent on making the most out of a life that has been returning to as close to normal as possible.

Dressed in women’s attire and a nose-pin errantly positioned on one nostril, 38-year-old Shahzadi adjusts her ‘dupatta’ (scarf) over her head as she enters the office of Cantonment Board Clifton, a provincial government bureau that recently hired her.

In an age when television continues to dominate national media, including Thailand’s, and gives birth to new celebrities, Kwanchai Praipana is a bit of an anomaly. His rise as a local star in this north-eastern city has been through community radio, the poor cousin of the local media.

Hajj Khodari lifts a defiant fist at the demolition machinery now just meters away from his front door.

A cacophony of murmurs and cries echoed through the neighbourhoods of Haiti's capital city Monday night as a violent aftershock shook people awake. Ten minutes later, another tremor rocked the ground, this time more smoothly back and forth.

Reducing the annual 13 million preterm births and 3.2 million stillbirths should be a global public health priority, says a report released Monday which asserts that significant reductions in these numbers could be achieved by improving access to low-cost interventions in both low and high-income countries.