News headlines in February 2009, page 2

While most mainstream press reaction to President Barack Obama's whopping 3.5-trillion-dollar 2010 budget has naturally focused on its far-reaching - even historic - implications for the U.S. domestic economy, experts here say it also marks at least the beginning of potentially important shifts in U.S. foreign policy.

President Barack Obama has given military commanders a free hand to determine the size and composition of a residual force in Iraq up to 50,000 troops, apparently including the option of leaving one or more combat brigades or bringing them from the United States, after the August 2010 deadline for the ostensible withdrawal of all combat brigades now in Iraq.

As José Luis reached the bus stop, he saw a crowd of furious local residents smashing shop fronts, cars and telephone booths. Without giving it much thought, he threw himself into the mob that broke into a small supermarket, triggering the worst social uprising and biggest massacre in the last 100 years in Venezuela.

Colombia’s FARC guerrillas admitted to killing eight Awá Indians who they accused of being army informants. Expert on military affairs Ariel Ávila said this indigenous community in the war-torn province of Nariño had formed vigilante 'self-defence' groups.

A boiling point over government inaction on climate change may have been reached in the United States.

The prestigious German oceanography ship Polarstern is conducting a major experiment of seeding the oceans with iron in order to absorb carbon dioxide, the principal greenhouse-effect gas.

One year after India released a scientifically prepared census report of tigers in this country, it is being criticised by some as inadequate and acclaimed by others as a significant step towards stemming the rapid depletion of the big cat through poaching and habitat loss.

The continuing efforts by Israel’s presumptive next prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, to assemble a rightwing-dominated government have sparked serious concern about the effects such a government might have on peace efforts with the Palestinians.

Soaring food prices and lack of land have forced Mauritius, a net food importing country, to launch an ambitious initiative. The island state is starting to grow its food in other African states where land is lying fallow and labour is cheap.

According to a recent article in the Harvard Business Review, the average annual return on investment in Africa is between 65 and 70 percent higher than in any other country, including China.