News headlines in 2009, page 299
CARIBBEAN: Region Cautious on Free Trade with Canada
- Inter Press Service

Two years ago, newly elected Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper acknowledged his country’s neglect of the Caribbean in recent years.
RIGHTS: U.S. Judge Gives Bagram Prisoners Right to Appeal
- Inter Press Service

In what could become an historic decision, a federal judge has ruled that non-Afghan citizens rendered by the U.S. to Bagram prison in Afghanistan have a constitutional right to challenge their detention in U.S. civilian courts.
AFRICA: Arbitration Mechanism Demanded to End Scourge of Debt
- Inter Press Service

International debt campaigners are calling for the establishment of a debt arbitration mechanism to respond to the difficulties that many countries of the South are increasingly facing as they attempt to service debt arrears to international lenders.
MIDEAST: Obama's Lieberman Problem
- Inter Press Service

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government was sworn in Tuesday - just one day later his foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman, set off a firestorm by saying he judged Israel was no longer bound by agreements reached at the late-2007 peace conference convened by the U.S. in Annapolis, Maryland.
CLIMATE CHANGE: Seals in the Baltic Left without Ice
- Inter Press Service

Ringed seals in the Baltic Sea are finding fewer and fewer ice caves in which to raise their young. Rising global temperatures are the problem, and in turn are depleting the main food source of the giant polar bear, say scientists.
POLITICS: U.S., Russia Affirm Ideal of 'Nuclear-Free' World
- Inter Press Service

In a meeting on the eve of the G20 summit in London, the leaders of the U.S. and Russia set out to take the first concrete steps towards a 'reset' of relations between the two countries.
AUSTRALIA: Concerns Rise Over Leak at Uranium Mine
- Inter Press Service

The revelation that a substantial amount of contaminated water is leaking each day from a tailings dam at a uranium mine, located in a World Heritage Site, has sparked protests from environment activists.
ENERGY: Oil Producers Look for Ways out of Crisis
- Inter Press Service

With the price of crude oil down more than 50 percent from a year ago, and with U.S. President Barack Obama championing alternative forms of energy, oil producers are scrambling to find ways to protect their industry.
MIDEAST: Big Powers Moving In on Gaza
- Inter Press Service

Nine NATO member states agreed last month to utilise naval, intelligence and diplomatic resources to combat the alleged flow of arms into the Gaza Strip. Some Egyptian commentators see the move as a surreptitious means of cementing foreign control over the region.
MIDEAST: All Unclear Over Israeli Policy
- Inter Press Service

How genuine is Israel's new leadership about peace when the Prime Minister says that he will go a long way towards striving for a settlement with the Palestinians, but purposefully omits to endorse an independent Palestinian state; and, when his foreign minister warns, 'If you want peace, prepare for war', a blunt statement on which the prime minister stays studiously silent?
Global Issues