News headlines in October 2009, page 2

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.

With the annual monsoon rains ending, there is a growing fear among the Karen ethnic minority living along military-ruled Burma’s eastern border of a dry season offensive. The most vulnerable are villagers residing in the vicinity of the controversial Hat Gyi dam.

Global health and U.S. AIDS activists are hailing President Barack Obama's announcement Friday that the government will end a 22-year-old ban on the entry into the United States of HIV-positive visitors.

Investing in the sustainable management of ecosystems and curbing environmental degradation greatly improves the capacity of nations to adapt to climate change, according to a study carried out in 16 countries by two environmental organisations.

Following months of dithering on the part of the U.S., a delegation from the U.S. State Department brokered a deal Thursday between the ousted and interim governments of Honduras.

International human rights groups have raised concern over a proposed non-binding resolution in the U.S. House Representatives which would call on the White House to oppose any future endorsement or consideration of Judge Richard Goldstone's 'Report of the United Nations Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict'.

The United Nations, which is pursuing a proposal for 'a world without nuclear weapons', will soon turn its attention to another new goal in the field of disarmament: creating a legally-binding treaty on conventional arms.

Janaína*, who lives in Jacarezinho, one of the most violent 'favelas' or shantytowns in this Brazilian city, describes the control that the 'movement' — the local drug mafia — exercises over the neighbourhood and local residents.

Big banks will not be forced to downsize and the public will be the last to know when they fail, a controversial bill unveiled by U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and Congressman Barney Frank proposes.

Two recent police raids of gay bars in Atlanta, Georgia and Fort Worth, Texas have sparked mass protests in the two cities and led activists to question whether equality for persons of all sexual orientations in the U.S. has come as far as some would like to believe.