News headlines in 2009, page 245
MIDEAST: Gaza Collects So Much Rubbish
- Inter Press Service

Suliman Khodari begins his shift at 5am on one of Gaza City's busiest streets. With his horse-drawn cart, Suliman spends seven hours every morning hauling away the rubbish left by residents and shop owners of the neighbourhood. But he is not a scavenger.
EUROPEAN UNION: Losing Its Shine
- Inter Press Service

In May 2004 eight East European states joined the EU, with their politicians and citizens harbouring high hopes of what accession would bring.
ROMANIA: Foreign Corporation Faces Public Scrutiny
- Inter Press Service

Public pressure from Romanian citizens has forced one of the biggest European producers of wood products, Austrian Kronospan, to halt construction of new production lines and to improve environmental standards at its plants.
TRADE: COMESA on Track with Establishing Customs Union
- Inter Press Service

Zimbabwe will finally host the 13th Common Market for Eastern and Southern African (COMESA) summit in the resort town of Victoria Falls in June where the regional grouping is expected to launch its customs union.
SRI LANKA: Preparing For a New Chapter of Development
- Inter Press Service

As Sri Lanka prepares for a new chapter of development after ending nearly three decades of conflict, ecologists among other experts here are calling for a ‘green’ revolution against the usual foreign investment, private sector-driven type of progress.
ASIA: Parliamentarians Turn Heat on Burma for Suu Kyi Trial
- Inter Press Service

In a move reflecting growing anger towards Burma, parliamentarians from across Southeast Asia want the military-ruled country suspended from a 10-member regional bloc for the unjust treatment of Aung San Suu Kyi, Burma’s pro-democracy leader.
YEMEN: Qat Cultivation Draining Water Reserves
- Inter Press Service

The tall green shrubs on Yehia Abdullah's farm in the Haraz mountains produce the bitter-tasting leaves that feed the nation's number one addiction. More than seven million Yemenis chew qat, the mildly narcotic leaf of the Catha edulis tree. Expanding cultivation of qat to meet growing national demand is rapidly depleting Yemen's limited groundwater resources, experts warn.
BOOKS: Canada's Agent Orange Victims Still Seeking Justice
- Inter Press Service

Bruce Brown died of cancer at age 18. Some of Marilyn Kissinger’s other friends lived into their early and late twenties, dying in the late 1960s. Most had died by the late 1980s.
POLITICS-US: Anti-Abortion Movement Has New Poster Child
- Inter Press Service

She’s a politically savvy history student at the University of California, Los Angeles who is appearing on countless conservative talk radio programmes and cable television news shows.
URUGUAY: Women Breaking Out of Political Corset
- Inter Press Service

When Uruguay returned to democracy in 1985, 'a political corset was put on women,' said a member of the opposition Colorado Party.
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