News headlines in January 2010, page 12

'The toads have disappeared from the countryside because of climate change, and now there is nothing to control the insects. Now we have to use chemicals to fight pests, and that is killing the soil,' says worried Peruvian farmer Julián Pilco.

Marjorie Louis and her two small children are sleeping in the street. Their home is in complete ruins. And Louis has no way to let her mother in Les Cayes know that she survived the deadliest natural disaster to hit this country.

After years of stonewalling, the U.S. Defence Department has released the names of people imprisoned at the notorious Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan.

Last week, the price of a small can of rice cost two dollars. On Tuesday, it cost Haitians 3.50 dollars. A gallon of cooking oil that cost 10 dollars only days ago now fetches 20 dollars.

Death threats allegedly made by a senior police officer to a journalist and the arrest of a photographer within four days have heightened fears of a new onslaught on the country’s media.

The Indian government’s grant of the final environmental clearance to a Korean giant firm, allowing it to acquire 3,000 acres of ‘forest lands’ in the eastern state of Orissa, has prompted a fresh spate of protests from more than 4,000 families that will be affected by a proposed mining project.

Despite appeals by human rights organisation to the Bangladesh government to end extrajudicial killings in the country, no steps have been taken to bring the perpetrators to justice.

An unprecedented 28 percent of seats in Bolivia's new parliament will soon be occupied by women. Female lawmakers have already launched a battle for women to serve in half the posts in the executive, legislative and judicial branches of government.

Tuesday's loss by the Democrats of their 60th Senate seat has raised serious questions about the outlook for the White House's policy agenda and spurred a rash of finger-pointing among Democrats over who bears responsibility for the very public rebuke issued by Massachusetts voters.

Abusive governments around the world escalated their attacks against local human rights defenders and other independent monitors during 2009, according to the 2010 edition of Human Rights Watch's annual 'World Report' released here Wednesday.