News headlines in 2009, page 73

U.S. President Barack Obama's extraordinary efforts since his first days in office to reassure Muslims in the Greater Middle East about U.S. intentions in the region have suffered a series of setbacks that threaten to reverse whatever gains he has made over the past 10 months in restoring Washington's badly battered image and influence there.

Specioza Nakabugo (63) sits on a mat under a mango tree on a well-mowed grass patch, her expression a blend of boredom and gloom.

Until the Taliban were forced to flee by the military, the militant group’s deadly opposition to vaccination had been severely hampering efforts to make Pakistan a polio-free country in the foreseeable future.

The official version of Chilean history renders women’s political participation 'invisible' and relegates them to a secondary or anecdotal role, says journalist Cherie Zalaquett, author of a new book, 'Chilenas en armas' (Chilean Women in Arms).

The long road to the proverbial day in court just got longer for five men who claim they were 'disappeared' and tortured by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency.

With HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis occupying the global health spotlight, few resources are devoted to the 'neglected tropical diseases' like dengue fever, hookworm infection and schistosomiasis that afflict some one billion people.

Following the bloody clashes in July in Urumqi, the capital of the restive Xingjian region in China, activist Rebiya Kadeer found herself in the midst of another controversy, having been accused by the Chinese government of instigating the riots.

It is a public-private partnership intended to reduce Uganda's dependence on imported vegetable oil while creating sustainable jobs and income for several thousand people. Its critics say it's destroying forests with no regard for environmental regulations.

As a delegation of European Union leaders descends on Washington Tuesday, a new report argues that 'European governments prefer to fetishise transatlantic relations, valuing closeness and harmony as ends in themselves, and seeking influence with Washington through various strategies of seduction or ingratiation'.

Seven-month-old Marta lived in the central highlands of Guatemala when she came down with a high fever and rapid, shallow breathing.