News headlines in 2009, page 86

Civil society representatives from South-east Asia’s developing democracies delivered an unequivocal message to the region’s leaders at a summit held here — they will not succumb to the whims of governments that suppress political and civil liberties at home.

U.S. engineers Martin Cooper and Raymond Tomlinson, considered the fathers of the mobile phone and email, respectively, received Spain's prestigious Prince of Asturias Award for Technical and Scientific Research from Crown Prince Felipe on Friday.

The 'land rush' across Africa by international investors should be regulated to protect smallholder farmers from deals that could leave them landless and hungry.

Dusk gathers in the thickets of Palemy village, in the Gulu district of northern Uganda. Men, women, and children follow foot paths through the dark to the residence of Mzee Otto Yuvani.

Although the UNDP's Report on Human Development in Central America 2009-2010 says the region has the highest rates of non-political crime in the world, there are nevertheless plenty of opportunities to improve public security, analysts and experts say.

A move by governments and rich investors to raise food crops on farmland purchased in some of the world's poorer countries is coming under fire.

Through nearly 5,000 different actions planned in 170 countries for Saturday, climate change activists will try to raise public awareness on the need for a new global climate treaty which would set an upper limit for atmospheric carbon dioxide that would effectively prevent environmental catastrophes.

The Dominican Republic passed the 38th version of its constitution Thursday evening, amending more than 40 articles that drew public protests and opposition from civil society groups and many average Dominicans.

Large biotechnology firms are not only depriving poor farmers of inputs essential for their livelihoods, but are also pushing up food prices, according to a new U.N. report.

The Barack Obama administration claims that construction of a second Iranian uranium enrichment facility at Qom began before Tehran's decision to withdraw from a previous agreement to inform the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in advance of such construction. But the November 2007 U.S. intelligence estimate on Iran's nuclear programme tells a different story.