News headlines in 2009, page 77

Janaína*, who lives in Jacarezinho, one of the most violent 'favelas' or shantytowns in this Brazilian city, describes the control that the 'movement' — the local drug mafia — exercises over the neighbourhood and local residents.

Big banks will not be forced to downsize and the public will be the last to know when they fail, a controversial bill unveiled by U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and Congressman Barney Frank proposes.

Two recent police raids of gay bars in Atlanta, Georgia and Fort Worth, Texas have sparked mass protests in the two cities and led activists to question whether equality for persons of all sexual orientations in the U.S. has come as far as some would like to believe.

A new process aimed at making the selection of judges more transparent in Guatemala failed to block the appointment of several candidates who were questioned by civil society and a U.N.-sponsored commission set up to strengthen and purge the country's justice system.

Fifteen years after dynamite blasts first shattered the peace of China’s breathtaking Three Gorges, the Three Gorges Dam—the pride of China’s engineering progress—is nearing completion. But the cannonade of criticism bombarding the world’s largest and costliest dam in history is far from over.

Grenada Today did not have the staff nor circulation associated with most major Caribbean publications.

Despite the sweltering sun and with a heavy load on her back Mary Muthoni strides to the tea buying centre with joy and pride painted on her face. 'This is a different year,' she smiles, hurriedly greeting other women farmers at the centre. For them, the story is the same: blessings in times of calamity.

'Fifty pesos ‘kada adlaw; ang beinte niana pamasahe’ (I get an allowance of 50 pesos (about one U.S. dollar) a day, of which 20 pesos (40 U.S. cents) is for fare),' says 17-year-old Dana Jane Estrada.

Every single person should set a cap of a total of 110 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions over the next four decades to avoid irreversible and uncontrollable consequences of climate change, under a new proposal.

On a quiet October morning, Fida Zaneen, 19, sings a traditional love song as she pulls olives from trees in Beit Hanoun's border region during the annual olive harvest.