News headlines in 2010, page 54

Despite the gains associated with antiretroviral treatments (ART) over the last decade, HIV/AIDS remains the leading cause of death among young and middle-aged adults in the Caribbean, warns a new U.N. report.

For much of late October, Caribbean ministers of agriculture, journalists, farmers and academics gathered in this tiny but picturesque south Caribbean island in a rearguard bid to refocus a region used to existing mostly for tourism on agriculture, given a mounting food import bill and fears of yet another global food crisis.

As national policies are developed to implement REDD, the U.N. effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from deforestation and forest degradation, a key question has been how to ensure social and environmental standards are upheld in REDD projects, both at the national and international level.

Opposition Republicans have scored major victories in the country's midterm elections by taking control over the House of Representatives from the Democrats and scoring impressive gains in the Senate, which delivered a stinging blow to Barack Obama's presidency.

Although Li Xiaoxue and her husband, Dai Chunlin, are already happy parents to a young boy, they plan to skirt China’s one- child policy by having another baby. And like a growing number of affluent, urban Chinese, their fingers are crossed for a baby girl.

It is one of the poorest countries in the world, has a low literacy rate, and is next door to at least two countries that have a considerable portion of their respective populations with HIV and AIDS. Yet even having a large migrant population has not made Bangladesh a hot spot for HIV and AIDS.

A parliamentary select committee has begun compiling comments on a new constitution, gathered at 4,000 meetings held across Zimbabwe over the past three months. Gender activists are confident that women's views have been expressed; it will be up to the eventual drafters of the new constitution to ensure they are reflected.

Honduras must answer to the United Nations Human Rights Council this week with respect to the numerous complaints of human rights violations committed before, during and after the Jun. 28, 2009 coup d'état that overthrew President Manuel Zelaya.

The children standing at the tent beside the filthy pool of water put their needs simply when asked what they wish for: 'À manger; l'école,' they said, practically in unison. In English, 'We want to eat; we want to go to school.'

The irony of politics is that the principles upheld by a party are often contradicted in practice, in the struggle for office or the exercise of power. Brazil's elections, in which Dilma Rousseff was chosen as the country's first woman president, offer some apt illustrations.