News headlines in 2009, page 59


The Zambezi is home to the fishing community on Mbeta Island. But after the river rose and swallowed their homes last year, they have learned to fear it as well.

The fight for women's rights came about hand in hand with the struggle for democracy, civil rights and national liberation in different countries and periods, says Ines Alberdi, executive director of UNIFEM.

Resistance to a government scheme to upgrade housing in Nairobi's Kibera slum is enmeshed in economics, history and identity.

To end poverty, you have to know how it began - with globalisation. No, not the 20th century variety engendered by multinationals and their friends at the IMF, World Bank and WTO. They just codified practices that kept developing countries poor.

As wheat rust threatened crops in the 1950s, a global effort to breed resistant wheat varieties led to 117 million hectares of cropland being protected from the deadly fungi and ensured the food security of 60 to 120 million rural households.

A coalition of 11 U.S., Israeli and Palestinian groups are calling on the New York Mets baseball team to cancel a fundraiser by the 'violent and racist' Israeli Hebron Fund which is scheduled to be held at the Mets' stadium, Citi Field, on Nov. 21.

As the Second Africa Water Week ends, participants have reiterated that lack of access to clean water and adequate sanitation has a direct bearing on public health and the economy in Africa.

Human rights and democracy are causes that are never completely won, which is why civil society needs the support of philanthropists.

Political developments are rapidly unfolding as the public eagerly awaits the President’s announcement on Sunday of the date for the next presidential or parliamentary polls—an event widely expected to bring about a new leadership that could bring to fruition the people’s collective yearnings for a return to law and order as well as discipline.

His victory speech is a smash hit on Internet sites; his image vies for popularity with those of communist China’s founding father Mao Zedong, and his book is a runway bestseller in this country’s big cities. But as China prepares to welcome him as the first black president of the United States, keen anticipation is mixed with unease.