News headlines in 2011, page 86

Scenes of celebration in the Gaza Strip and in Jerusalem have greeted the announcement of a landmark Palestinian-Israeli prisoner-swap deal.

The Suape port complex may be eternally absolved of its environmental sins for ushering in unprecedented prosperity in the impoverished northeastern Brazilian state of Pernambuco, and for having been built before stricter requirements were introduced.

Adelaida Avelino, 60, is still devastated by the loss of her corn and wheat harvest, which were destroyed by the freeze that hit the Mexican state of Tlaxcala a month ago. But at least her medicinal plants survived.

The United Nations must address a 'crisis of confidence' at the beleaguered Khmer Rouge war crimes tribunal in Cambodia following the resignation of a controversial judge, critics say.

A newborn baby dies every four minutes in Pakistan. It was not always so. With a sound population policy set out in the 1950s, Pakistan was second only to Sri Lanka in infant and neonatal survival rates during the 1960s and 1970s (compared to Bangladesh, India, Iran and Nepal). But the country has seen considerable sliding down of its health indicators for mothers, infants and newborns.

The Bolsa Verde or Green Grant programme, which gives financial assistance to poor families that help preserve Brazil's Amazon jungle, may turn out to be only a drop in the ocean if legislation that undermines forest protection is adopted.

The question which is safer - the heavily armed world we live in now, or a world in which all peoples' basic needs are met - is one core issue of an antinuclear exhibition that has reached Germany after touring more than 220 cities in 28 countries.

As global working-class outrage against corporate capitalism explodes in organised protests around the world, scores of citizens in Spain are demanding an end to tax breaks for the wealthy.

After 23 years of enforced silence, media professionals and artists in Tunisia are enjoying a period in which their freedom of expression is being respected for the first time.

In a move certain to escalate tensions on a number of fronts, the U.S. Justice Department Tuesday charged a dual Iranian- American national and an alleged member of the Islamic Republic's special operations unit of conspiring to assassinate the Saudi ambassador here.