News headlines in 2009, page 10

When a magistrate in the western port city of Mumbai convicted two doctors in November for advertising sex selection services, it showed determination to enforce laws aimed at stopping gender determination tests linked to the mass abortion of female foetuses.

The Paris-based Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has invited Chile, a developing nation with a vibrant economy, to join what has long been described as 'the rich man's club'.

As countries failed to reach a substantive climate change pact at Copenhagen last week, action at the subnational level has emerged as one of the likeliest paths toward significant climate action.

President Hugo Chávez complained that an unmanned reconnaissance aircraft from Colombia recently violated Venezuelan airspace in the northwest of the country and was sighted by soldiers in Fort Mara, near the border.

A study by more than 30 experts from Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil and Paraguay warns of the threat menacing the survival of fish species and 50 riverside settlements in the Río de la Plata basin, which is the second largest river system in South America after the Amazon basin and contains a wealth of biodiversity.

The sound of sewing machines fills the room with a low, continuous hum. A handful of women sit behind the machines, their heads bent in concentration on their work.

North Koreans are not as isolated from the world as the United States thinks, and in fact understand the U.S. better than the U.S. understands North Koreans, says regional expert Robert Carlin.

The Litunga of Barotseland, King of the Lozi, has no judicial or legislative authority. No supervisory control over government projects, and worst of all he cannot stand for elected office. Yet successive Zambian presidents have deferred to him.

People might expect fresh-faced Noha Atef to spend a lot of time writing blogs and perusing social networking sites, but they are often surprised by the content of her posts and tweets. The 25-year-old Egyptian journalist uses the Internet to expose police abuse and torture in her home country.

To activists more accustomed to working against Burma’s military junta than with it, any engagement with the recalcitrant regime will amount to nothing. But to Nobel laureate Josepth Stiglitz, it is a window of opportunity for a country that has known only poverty and repression.