News headlines in 2009, page 85

Corruption, doubts over Afghan leadership, and faltering public support have emerged as the main stumbling blocks to a demand for more NATO troops in Afghanistan.

Getting blacklisted as belonging to a terrorist organisation is a punitive sanction, even though governments may say it is only an administrative measure, according to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the European Centre for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR).

With new energy and environment strategies in the pipeline, the World Bank and its critics are going head to head on issues of fossil fuel funding and clean energy. The Bank will now call in outside experts to ensure that its coal power financing is justifiable, but critics would prefer it to go for truly clean energy.

The decision by the oil-rich United Arab Emirates to build nuclear reactors has unleashed frenetic, politically backed competition between giant corporations from France, the U.S., Japan and South Korea to win contracts estimated at more than 40 billion dollars.

As one of the world’s poorest nations, Cambodia is by definition one of those least able to protect itself from the effects of climate change. As an agrarian society, it is one of those most susceptible to climate change.

The Ggaba landing site on Lake Victoria is the nearest wholesale fish market to the Ugandan capital, Kampala. More than 6,000 people live and work in this fishing community.

A South-east Asian human rights mechanism launched here at a regional summit should be used by victims of rights violations to end oppression at home, says a member of this new body.

In two decades of fishing on the Zambezi, Darius Wamulume has never seen anything like this. With deep ulcerations and tissue decay, the fish he has caught recently is too unsightly to sell and too suspect to eat.

Look, there's no drama with the borehole in Mokobeng. And that's the way it should be.

The negotiators for ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya and de facto leader Roberto Micheletti announced that talks to solve the political crisis triggered by the Jun. 28 coup had broken down.