News headlines in 2009, page 37

In a highly anticipated speech Tuesday evening, President Barack Obama announced the dispatch of 30,000 more U.S. troops to Afghanistan over the next seven months and said he would begin drawing down the U.S. military presence there 12 months later.

President Barack Obama presented a case Tuesday for sending 30,000 more U.S. troops to Afghanistan that included both soaring rhetoric and a new emphasis on its necessity for U.S. national security.

East Timor’s leaders say bringing to justice perpetrators of atrocities committed during the Indonesian army’s occupation would sour relations between the neighbouring countries, but not everyone is so keen to forgive and move on.

The Nov. 25 announcement by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of a 'moratorium' on settlement construction brought very different responses from the Jewish American 'pro-Israel' groups J-Street and the heavyweight American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), calling attention to the increasing divide within the American Jewish community.

The hard-line stance taken by Brazil, Argentina and most other Latin American countries has clashed with U.S. efforts to push for international recognition of the elections organised Sunday by the de facto regime in power in Honduras since the Jun. 28 coup.

In the scorching heat of the midday summer sun, a teenage boy’s sharp voice can be heard vividly as he continuously summons his cattle. Glad in his shabby-looking rag that used to be a blanket and black gumboots, the only thing that occupies his mind is his herd, his everyday companions, nothing else.

Cuban biotechnology and pharmaceutical products are already among the country's major exports, and the industry is on course to continue developing while maintaining a firm focus on making a real difference to the health of all Cubans and of people in the numerous countries where Cuba provides medical assistance.

Touted as 'harvested forests,' single-crop tree plantations are fast encroaching on the native forests and grasslands of Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay, affecting the environment and the lives of local communities, rural women say.

Eric Mangar deplores the fact that Mauritius, despite being a net food importer, has failed to learn its lessons from the food crisis. The island state is pursuing 'business as usual' without taking steps to improve food production on the local front.

With one week left before the start of the United Nations climate change summit in Copenhagen, there is still no reliable word as to whether Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will attend, or whether or how much the South Asian state will commit itself to emission cuts.