News headlines in 2011, page 56

The United States’ decision to cut funding for the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation will hurt the specialised agency’s work, officials here say.

African heads of state have ambitious plans to create a free trade zone, encompassing 26 countries and more than 600 million people on the continent. But economic experts warn the project is a bold step that comes with a plethora of legal, administrative and political hurdles. Others suggest the plan might be a pie in the sky.

If Chinese detractors of liberal democracy and unbridled market development ever needed more fodder for their attacks on the West, then last week's Greek farce provided plenty. But behind the headlines announcing 'the collapse of Europe' there is little sense of ideological triumph. Instead Beijing is busy drawing up contingency pans for the break up of the eurozone and absorbing the lessons of welfare state excesses.

Two weeks after President Barack Obama announced the withdrawal of all remaining U.S. troops from Iraq by the end of next month, a familiar clutch of neo-conservative hawks and prominent Republicans are blaming the president for 'losing' the Middle Eastern country to its neighbour and long-time Washington nemesis, Iran.

Environmentalists criticised the lack of concrete proposals in the Brazilian government's submission to the preparatory process for the Rio+20 conference, to be held in this city in June 2012.

On a small stage, a woman appears, grief written on her face as she wanders through the streets of Kabul, searching for her missing child. Suddenly, she stops by a scene of ruins and stares.

'After so many years of feminist activism, we still hadn't realised that you need money to get things done. When I finally understood that, it was like seeing the light. It was a whole new avenue to explore,' Argentine activist Noemí Chiarotti told IPS.

When Mary Clinton, 25, joined other activists to help organise the Occupy Wall Street movement on Sep. 17, she never imagined the gamble would turn into a 'populous left movement of the 21st century'.

Hundreds of Japanese women have been converging on the Japanese capital demanding better relief for some 30,000 children exposed to nuclear radiation by the Fukushima meltdown.

While the Greek bailout and stimulus package dominated discussion among the Group of 20 (G20) major industrialised and emerging market economies at the high-level summit in Cannes, France, this week, the proposed financial transactions tax (FTT) received meagre attention.