News headlines in 2009, page 25

While poor, native women in Bolivia have gained access to power, they are still largely marginalised from any real decision-making, despite their instrumental role in the 2005 election of leftist President Evo Morales, the country's first-ever indigenous president, and his re-election on Sunday.

For the last decade, the autumn skies over Egypt - especially over capital Cairo, have been overshadowed by a thick haze people call 'the black cloud'.

'Get your hands off the Land of Israel and the people of the Land of Israel - that's what we need to tell Mr. Obama - get on the phone to the White House each and every one of you!'

Uganda will be going back to the days of the Idi Amin regime if it passes a Bill which will arrest or kill people for being gay or lesbian and for repeatedly engaging in homosexual sex, say rights activists.

Tomorrow’s polluters are today’s emerging economies. To develop without retracing the polluting steps of the West, requires green technology, an expensive option for Africa.

Last week President Obama made what is probably the most crucial announcement in the past five years of war.

Congress has given new momentum to a bill imposing unilateral sanctions on Iran - a move seen by many as an ineffective form of sanctions and potentially antagonistic against valuable U.S. allies on the U.N. Security Council. This comes ahead of the end of the year deadline set by U.S. President Barack Obama for Tehran to respond to a proposed agreement to export most of its enriched uranium for processing in Russia and France.

While President Barack Obama’s announcement last week that he will 'surge' 30,000 more U.S. troops into Afghanistan has received all of the attention here over the past week, Pakistan appears to be looming larger than ever in Washington’s strategic calculations and concerns.

The changing ‘face’ of the media landscape in the Mekong region is eliciting both excitement and fear from observers and professionals alike.

'We don't need to change the climate, we need to change trade,' said Brazilian activist Marta Lago at Klimaforum, the civil society meeting held in parallel with the climate change summit in the Danish capital.