News headlines in February 2012, page 26

Women have been left in charge of many of the households in the village of Zamkoye-Koïra, in western Niger, as food shortages have driven male family members to leave in search of work elsewhere. A national survey of vulnerable households shows that 5.4 million people face food insecurity across Niger.

Earlier this week, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced the publication of a new notice which significantly tightens its procedures for the processing of public housing demolition applications by local housing authorities.

With a steady growth in production and exports, fair trade in Argentina is proving that socially and environmentally sustainable practices can be much more than a refuge from external crises.

If the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) had 1.28 billion dollars it could help 97 million people around the world.

A radical political group based in a working class neighbourhood of the Venezuelan capital has sparked a furore by publishing photographs of children from the community, with their faces partially hidden, brandishing AR-15 assault rifles.

The rise of emerging economies in Latin America is an opportunity to improve strategies for fighting neglected illnesses and increase the region's contribution to the global struggle against them, says the regional director of an organisation devoted to this purpose.

Through its ties with Venezuela and other nations in Latin America, Iran is building an anti-U.S. alliance in the Western Hemisphere that poses a direct, imminent threat to the United States, an influential U.S. lawmaker said Thursday.

When a financial crisis threatened the existence of Africa’s oldest community station, Bush Radio, an outpouring of sympathy and appeals went viral on social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook. In the end, it was this outspoken support that showed finanical backers that the station was worth saving.

The World Business and Development Awards has called for nominations for successful business initiatives in line with the Rio+20 UN Conference on Sustainable Development. The 2012 Awards will be given explicitly to companies delivering inclusive business models: sustainable, commercially-viable business initiatives that expand access for low-income people to goods and services, or improve their livelihoods by engagement in value chains as direct employees, suppliers or distributors, while also generating sales and profit growth. In honour of the Rio+20 host country, there will be a special category designated for Brazil-based companies.

In an uncharacteristically lively election campaign in this nation of five million people, Finns head for the polls in a second round of voting Sunday to elect a new president.