News headlines in 2009, page 357

Climate change, pollution and overfishing have left the oceans in crisis, experts agree. Now a new study reveals that every national government with a fishing fleet has dramatically failed to manage fisheries in a responsible manner.

The financial meltdown has finally visited Greece. European Commission figures leave no space for political manoeuvring by the Greek government, the usual way to deal with EC control and counsel.

A United Nations special envoy ended his seventh visit to Burma this week facing a tall order: secure freedom for some 2,100 political prisoners in the military-ruled country as preliminary to meaningful political reform.

As Sri Lanka celebrate 61 years of independence from British colonial rule on Wednesday, the enthusiasm is understandably not shared by minority Tamils living under the military jackboot in the north of the country.

Rabbi Abraham Cooper, one of the world’s leading human rights activists, is often heard on the subject of hate. He is an international authority on issues related to digital hate over the Internet.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague announced a preliminary investigation Tuesday into whether Israel committed war crimes during the recent Gaza war, following the Palestinian National Authority's (PNA) move to recognise the ICC's authority in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Even as U.S. President Barack Obama prepares to deploy more military forces to Afghanistan - what he has called 'the central front' in former President George W. Bush's 'global war on terror' - a consensus on overall U.S. strategy there remains elusive.

When it opened its doors to the public in 1936, the Colonial Life Insurance Company (CLICO) adopted the motto: 'Give a man value, give a man service, and he will support you.'

Alan Jara, the former governor of the central province of Meta, was released by Colombian guerrillas on Tuesday, instead of Monday as originally scheduled. Former regional lawmaker for the western province of Valle del Cauca, Sigifredo López, was scheduled to have been freed on Wednesday, but his handover has now been postponed until Thursday.

The Southern Poverty Law Centre (SPLC) said Tuesday that its research has connected three mainstream U.S. anti-immigration groups to racist ideas.