News headlines in February 2009, page 12

Former president Nestor Kirchner, while having no official government post, calls and receives ministers and governors, confidently choosing staff and distributing funds for public works projects.

Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe last week presided over the formation of a new unity government. Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) secretary general Tendai Biti was appointed to the post of finance minister.

U.S. President Barack Obama announced Tuesday that he is sending two additional combat brigades to Afghanistan, marking the start of what many believe will be an escalation that will ultimately see the U.S. forces there double.

The kidnapping of John Solecki of the United Nations High Commission on Refugees(UNHCR)in Quetta, Balochistan province seems to confirm the perception of international humanitarian organisations that aid work in Pakistan is becoming increasingly hazardous.

While the bushfires which ravaged parts of the state of Victoria earlier this month - the most devastating in the nation’s history - are not being blamed directly on the effects of climate change, it is clear that global warming was indeed a factor.

Antonio and Héctor Cerezo, whose parents have been accused by the Mexican authorities of founding a guerrilla group, walked free out of prison this week after serving seven-and-a-half year sentences. According to human rights organisations, they were victims of state revenge.

Praise by the U.S. State Department for Sunday's referendum in Venezuela suggests that President Barack Obama is hoping to ease long-strained relations with President Hugo Chavez, according to regional experts here.

The guns have been silent for 10 years across what was Yugoslavia, but more than 130,000 violent deaths still cast a long shadow on the region.

Israel is bracing for a wave of lawsuits accusing the Jewish state of substantial human rights violations during its 22-day military assault on Gaza which left more than 1,300 Palestinians dead and nearly 5,000 wounded, more than half of them civilian.

The average income in the Kyenjojo district in western Uganda is less than a dollar a day. Spending twice that on a single sanitary pad is an unaffordable luxury for most women.