News headlines in 2009, page 196
RIGHTS-AUSTRALIA: Uplifting Aboriginals, a Matter of 'Urgent National Significance'
- Inter Press Service

In this remote Aboriginal town, 420 km south-west of Darwin, Northern Territory’s capital, third world living conditions still prevail despite the Australian government’s efforts to improve life for its oldest inhabitants.
CLIMATE CHANGE: G8 Declares a Lack of Promise
- Inter Press Service

The G8 summit is no climate change meeting, and not formally associated in any sense with the series of negotiating meetings leading up to the climate change conference in Copenhagen in December. But the outcome of a G8 sponsored forum on climate change should get environmentalists worried about any outcome in Copenhagen.
PUERTO RICO: Pride in Sotomayor Rekindles Debate Over Status
- Inter Press Service

Sonia Sotomayor's nomination by President Barack Obama to the U.S. Supreme Court has turned her into a reason for national pride in Puerto Rico. But it has also added fresh fuel to the perpetual debate for self-determination of the people in the Caribbean island, which has been a commonwealth of the U.S. for over a hundred years.
RIGHTS-CAMBODIA: Decades Later, S-21 Survivors Recall Ordeal
- Inter Press Service

'They cuffed me and told me to lie on the floor with my face facing down,' the old man told the judges.
POLITICS: Is the Non-Aligned Movement Still Relevant?
- Inter Press Service

When the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) holds its triennial summit meeting in the Red Sea coastal town of Sharm el-Sheikh next week, Cuba will formally hand over the chairmanship of one of the world's largest single political groups to Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.
FAO Paper On Land Grab Is 'Wishy-Washy': AFRICA
- Inter Press Service

The boom in the acquisition of arable land in Africa by foreign companies and governments has stirred an international debate between international institutions such as the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and non-governmental groups and independent experts.
DOMINICAN REPUBLIC: Losing Freedom, But Not Dignity
- Inter Press Service

If you are a woman in prison anywhere in the world, you would be fortunate to be in one of the new model prisons in the Dominican Republic.
SPAIN-EQUATORIAL GUINEA: More Trade, Little Pressure
- Inter Press Service

Trade between Spain and Equatorial Guinea is flourishing, amidst calls by activists for the government of Spanish Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero to push for democracy in this tiny country on the Atlantic coast of Africa, still under the yoke of dictatorship.
G8: Doha Deal Begins to Look Nearer
- Inter Press Service

Clear signs are emerging at the G8 summit here of progress towards concluding new terms for international trade.
LAOS: The New Silk Road
- Inter Press Service

At the age of 13, Kommaly Chantavong, now 64, walked over 600 kms to Vientiane from her home in Lao’s northern province of Huaphan. She walked through the buzzing war with the French in bare feet. All she took were heirloom pieces of woven silk, legacies from her grandmothers.
Global Issues