News headlines in October 2009

Countries emerging from conflict need more international assistance to rebuild their food production, since hunger and scarcity may prompt a return to fighting, United Nations and development officials warned this week.

The possibility of environmental catastrophe has led many leaders, scholars and average citizens to reconsider an economy based on constant growth. It is becoming clear that people, especially in the United States, will need to consume less in the way of natural resources to avoid planetary peril.

An upcoming mission by senior United States government officials to military- ruled Burma points to Washington’s commitment that engaging with oppressive regimes—than spurning them—is the way forward for change.

Is the ongoing controversy over Iran's nuclear programme helping to advance the United Nations' agenda on nuclear disarmament? To a number of diplomats and experts who have participated in past U.N. discussions on the spread of nuclear weapons, the answer is, yes — although not necessarily for the expected reasons.

For the past 43 years, biologists Edna and Luiz Toledo have not waited for the garbage truck to collect their trash. Their three-storey house is in fact made out of 'garbage', from the floor to the roof. Items that others would see as worthless are, in their eyes, valuable raw material.

Soon after President Hamid Karzai acceded to a runoff two weeks ago, challenger Abdullah Abdullah put forward an avalanche of requests so complex, that his objective remains unclear.

When Dorothy Kakongwe smiles, her creases tell stories no history book can recount. Now, as an elderly and humble nurse, she can reflect on the changes in the landscape and people around her.

Every year, Robert Assalé, a farmer at Tangamourou in the Bondoukou region in east-central Côte d'Ivore, produces an impressive amount of yams. He harvested 30 tonnes in 2007, 42 tonnes in 2008 and has almost surpassed 50 tonnes this year.

Transsexuals in the Gulf call Bahraini lawyer Fawziya Janahi 'guardian angel'. She is the Arab world's only female lawyer who takes up cases on behalf of clients who want to change their sex.

An ascendant China that ignores human rights in Tibet and Xinjiang, poses a danger to world peace, say Nobel laureates Mairead Corrigan Maguire and Jody Williams.