News headlines in 2009, page 67

'If it weren't for the Mevir housing project, this would be a ghost town,' says the local shopkeeper who supplies the basic needs of the families living in this remote hamlet in the middle of nowhere in the South American country of Uruguay.

Sri Lanka has reacted strongly to a European Commission (EC) probe on its human rights record, saying it is politically motivated.

It has been a bad week for the climate change summit in Copenhagen next month. During the week the last meeting in the formal round of pre- Copenhagen talks collapsed in Barcelona. Then, meeting here on the weekend, the G20 finance ministers put the seal on that failure by failing to agree to a financial package.

It has been a bad week for the climate change summit in Copenhagen next month. During the week the last meeting in the formal round of pre- Copenhagen talks collapsed in Barcelona. Then, meeting here on the weekend, the G20 finance ministers put the seal on that failure by failing to agree to a financial package.

Years ago, when Catalina Sánchez saw an opportunity to earn an income and improve her family’s living conditions by growing and selling nopales - an edible cactus native to Mexico - she probably never imagined that her idea would spawn three businesses.

Thailand’s swift and strong response to Cambodia’s decision to appoint ousted Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra as an economic adviser exposed an emotional faultline rooted in decades of mutual suspicion and hatred.

One thing that has set apart the current administration of President Mahinda Rajapaksa from those of his predecessors is its diplomatic duals with international heavyweights.

The momentum that U.S. climate change legislation has picked up in recent weeks will not be enough to get it through prior to the Copenhagen climate talks that kick off Dec. 7. It has also come at a steep price for those most committed to seeing such legislation pass.

Ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya said Friday that the agreement reached last week to solve the four-month crisis triggered by a coup d'etat was 'dead.'

Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega has been accused before the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights of responsibility for a series of violent incidents, which in the view of some analysts and civil society organisations have harmed democracy in the country.