News headlines in 2009, page 84

A new Green Revolution that is truly green is needed to prevent efforts to eradicate hunger colliding with climate change goals, environmentalists say.

Uruguay's Electoral Court announced Monday that the governing Broad Front (FA) candidate José Mujica took 47.5 percent of the vote in Sunday's elections, which means he will face off with former conservative president Luis Alberto Lacalle of the National Party (PN) in a second round on Nov. 29.

The fifteenth anniversary of the U.S. ratification of the United Nations Convention Against Torture passed last week with little fanfare and virtually no press attention from the mainstream media here.

Tiny Spogmay, a Grade 1 student in one of the biggest schools in the violence-wracked North West Frontier Province (NWFP), is deeply disturbed by the government’s decision to shut down educational institutions all over the country in the wake of renewed terrorist attacks, forcing her to stay home.

As Susan Muonanji and other vendors scrambled around one of the many transport busses to sell cabbages and tomatoes at a market along one of Malawi’s key roads, a national budget session just started in parliament some 100 kilometres away in the capital city, Lilongwe.

It seems that, once again, Africa and the rest of the developing world have been short-changed, given the broken promises in the wake of the global economic implosion.

With its recent history of tremendous economic growth, China has a few lessons to teach Africans. But African governments should be vigilant in ensuring that their countries also reap benefits from their relations with China.

The rate of civilian casualties in Afghanistan during 2009 has increased exponentially if compared with previous years.

Rice, the staple dish across South-east Asia, has emerged as an apt symbol of the region’s commitment — or lack of it — to unveiling a free trade area for its 10 members when the New Year dawns.

This year’s Frankfurt Book Fair may have been more of an embarrassment than prestige for its guest of honour — China — but the country’s cultural mandarins still believe that the future of cultural ideas belongs to the Middle Kingdom and that the global financial crisis will play a role in helping them achieve that.