News headlines in February 2011, page 5

1325. It's a combination of digits that might not mean much to the majority of the world's population, but these four numbers are a crucial tool in the global struggle for gender equality.

At this year’s 61st edition of the Berlin International Film Festival Iranian filmmaker Asghar Farhadi took the highest prize.

An Argentine government proposal to crack down on clients benefiting from the trafficking of persons for the purposes of sexual exploitation has unleashed a heated debate between feminist organisations that support the idea and sex workers who are opposed to it.

A United Nations rights envoy says Cambodia must accelerate the pace of its democratic reforms, but it’s unclear how much sway he holds with a government that has become increasingly resistant to international criticism.

Central America is cautiously hoping that the visit of U.S. President Barack Obama to El Salvador Mar. 22-23 will give tangible form to Washington's commitment to protecting immigrants and fighting organised crime in the region, analysts told IPS.

When the government of national unity (GNU) was formed two years ago, Zimbabweans expected that the days of shop shelves being filled with imported consumer goods would soon be over.

Although more girls are enrolling in school - notably in countries with the greatest gender gaps like Chad, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Yemen - two-thirds of the world's illiterate adults are still women.

- In terms of economics, the European Union (EU) includes one country - Germany - that is both friend and foe to the 27-member community, and their relationship has turned markedly bittersweet on the road to recovery after the global economic crisis.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has begun the initial stages of a process that may lead to the federal agency's first regulations to limit emissions of carbon dioxide from power plants and oil refineries.

Suggestions are pouring in from all corners of the world on how the world’s rich could reduce climate-damaging consumption habits, called Millennium Consumption Goals (MCGs), envisioned to be the flipside of the eight-point Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) set for the poor.