News headlines in 2011, page 192

Confused foreign tourists arriving at Israel’s Ben Gurion International Airport on Friday would be forgiven for thinking that a terrorist attack was about to take place.

Macklina Kenyi, 33, ran away from South Sudan to avoid being raped and abducted by the rebels during the war. She has since been studying in Kenya but on Jul. 9 she returned to Juba to witness the birth of her country.

Reports of extrajudicial executions, forced disappearances, kidnappings and assaults are some of the heavy baggage that U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay is taking home from Mexico.

As the debt crisis drains the purses of European countries, EU members are trying to alleviate the economic downturn, in part with the aid of Chinese investments.

Mother of eight, Jessicah Foni, 36, hopes that independence will mean a hospital will soon be built in her village.

Foni, who has travelled from a remote village in South Sudan to the state’s capital to celebrate independence, lost two babies at birth because of the lack of medical facilities in her area.

Sudan is closest to civil war since the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) in 2005.

Joshua Kotouc, a doctor from the U.S., came with a group of missionaries to San Miguel Chicaj, a small town in the mountainous province of Baja Verapaz in northern Guatemalan, in 2006. 'El Gringo', as he is known in the community, decided to stay on out of 'altruistic' motives.

When Valente Inziku’s wife, Jennifer Anguko, went into labour they had decided she would go to the local referral hospital just to ensure a safe delivery.

As South Sudan prepares to cede from the North, it faces tremendous challenges towards building a nation and a sense of nationhood.

As the world's largest international agricultural research coalition celebrated its 40th anniversary here this week, it also announced the launch of a programme to help provide enough maize to meet the annual food demands of over 600 million consumers by 2030.