News headlines in 2009, page 57

The 60 hectare stretch of farmland in north Kabul's Badam Bagh neighbourhood looks much like farmland all over this country. Colourful rows of neatly planted crops stretch out from a dusty road and up the gentle slope of an arid ridge.

Until meagre resources began dwindling to almost nothing, 43-year-old Firdaus Begum had not ventured into the Khana Ghar (Food House), which serves up inexpensive but filling meals.

The number of international students attending colleges and universities in the United States has reached an all-time high of 671,616, largely bolstered by an increasing number of undergraduate students from China, while U.S. students are also studying abroad in higher numbers.

The ongoing drive to purge derogatory American Indian nicknames and mascots from U.S. sports and schools took a minor hit Monday when the U.S. Supreme Court declined, without comment, to hear an appeal challenging the trademark protecting the name of the National Football League's Washington Redskins.

As the World Food Security Summit got under way in Rome Monday, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) disclosed that nearly one in six U.S. households went hungry at some time during 2008, the highest level since it began monitoring food security levels in 1995.

Community control of public funds will no longer be just an effective local idea, put into practice by social activists and community leaders in a town in southern Brazil. Now that it has won first prize in ECLAC's fifth Social Innovation Contest, it is likely to spread throughout Latin America.

Tens of thousands of Gazans living in tents and damaged homes face a wet, cold and miserable winter as Israel’s blockade of the coastal territory continues to prevent the importation of building and reconstruction material.

Success in fighting violence against women may well hinge on partnership with an often overlooked but still a critically vital party - men themselves.

Fears that the United Nations World Food Security Summit would fail to deliver effective measures to defeat hunger were borne out Monday when world leaders and government officials approved a toothless declaration on the first day.

Seven-year-old Ntombi* frowns after swallowing the tablets her grandmother has given her. The HIV positive child has contracted multi-drug-resistant (MDR) TB.