News headlines in September 2009, page 5

Much of the internationally-recognised wetland surrounding the Orange River mouth has lost its rich green colour. Situated close to long-standing diamond mining operations, the river's mouth has been treated with environmental disregard for decades.

The need for adequate financing to assist developing countries in meeting the challenges of climate change was highlighted on Monday’s opening of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) negotiations in Thailand’s capital.

In a remarkable parallel with a similar turning point in the Vietnam War 44 years ago, President Barack Obama will preside over a series of meetings in the coming weeks that will determine whether the United States will proceed with an escalation of the Afghanistan War or adjust the strategy to reduce the U.S. military commitment there.

The economic crisis looks set to reduce the new government's commitments in development and environmental policy.

John Owor is a paid spokesperson for brides and grooms. His job is to represent one of the parties during traditional marriage negotiations, which involves the payment of a bride price.

Sierra Leone's largest opposition party has taken the country's media monitoring body to court for banning its radio station.

When it comes to pageantry, China’s communist leaders leave little to chance. This October, which marks 60 decades of their rule over the Middle Kingdom, mass events and grand spectacles would have needed little choreography to elicit a joyous mood.

A declaration that puts an accent on the positions of the developing South and expresses a renewed commitment to cooperation in the fight against poverty and for development was signed by the leaders who met over the weekend in the second South America-Africa summit, on the Venezuelan island of Margarita.

Burma’s monks are silent but seething with anger two years after the brutal state crackdown on their revolution.

In the last few years, several Latin American countries have attempted to improve labour conditions for rural workers and domestics, whose labour rights have long been ignored. But the new laws, even those with limited scope, are not always enforced.