News headlines in 2009, page 368

In Kenyan corporate terms, Vimal Shah is a super star. As a testament his fastidious peers here last year bestowed on him the redoubtable title of CEO of the Year.

While the decision of President Barack Obama to close the prison at Guantanamo Bay Cuba, and end the practice of interrogation techniques that violate international law, made front page news throughout the United States, press reaction in the Middle East was far less extensive - but generally favourable.

While the Sri Lankan army has announced the capture of Mullaitivu, the last bastion of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), the plight of more than 250,000 civilians caught in the fighting continues to be as grim as that of civilians in Gaza, say those involved in humanitarian work.

Protests have been taking place in Bulgarian capital Sofia almost every day since Jan. 14. Bringing together students and parents, farmers and environmentalists, the actions are directed against a political class which, in the words of the organisers, has 'robbed' Bulgarians.

Following the Nov. 26-29 terror attacks on the port city of Mumbai, which exposed lack of coordination among various security forces, the clamour to implement long-pending police reforms in India has become louder.

The new U.S. President was as good as his word. Within 48 hours of taking the helm, Barack Obama declared it 'will be the policy of my Administration to actively and aggressively seek a lasting peace between Israel and the Palestinians as well as Israel and its Arab neighbours.'

Faced with shortages of blue crab delivered to his food processing company a Filipino businessman turned to a green-friendly solution to restore the supply chain.

Jurisprudence in Africa has improved a lot since the early 1990s, but a lot of work still has to be done to improve justice structures across the continent.

At first the 44 children that live in the Zani family home in Beit Hanoun were wary of the unexploded F-16 rocket whose tail has protruded menacingly from their garden since it landed in the first week of the Israeli assault on Gaza. Now, they have grown used it - playing excitedly near it and even building fires next to it, a relative says.

The collapse of the Zimbabwean economy has led to the ‘‘dollarisation’’ of the economy – and even to what some, who have still maintained some sense for tragicomedy, call the ‘‘petrolisation’’ of the economy because of the re-emergence of barter trade.