News headlines in January 2010, page 5

Porfirio Lobo, who was sworn in Wednesday as president of Honduras, urged the people of his country and the international community to 'forget the past' and move ahead towards reconciliation.

With the Senate set to take up major sanctions legislation against Iran by mid-February, neo-conservative and other hawks are calling on the administration of President Barack Obama to pursue a more aggressive course of 'regime change' in Tehran.

The president of Iraq's Kurdistan region, Massoud Barzani, has expressed indirect support for the removal of Salih al-Mutlak and possibly other Sunni Arab politicians from a list of candidates banned from running in the March parliamentary elections.

In the societies of the future, young people may not start to work until the age of 25, there will be lifelong education for everyone, with university graduation as the starting point rather than the end goal, while working hours could be reduced to 12 hours a week for all.

The United Nations estimates that at least 40 percent of civil wars during the last 60 years have been fought either over natural resources - including diamonds, gold, timber, oil, gas, and cocoa - or sustained by revenues from rich minerals and commodities.

Environmental activists in El Salvador allege that managers of a gold mine owned by a Canadian corporation are implicated in the murders of three anti-mining activists.

More than a decade ago, Marie Elisemonde left Haiti, fleeing threats of rape and murder by thugs, or zengledo in Creole, who could only be appeased with money. She paid 700 dollars for her seat on a boat to the United States, without any guarantees of a safe arrival or entry.

In the wake of a blizzard of economic hardship across North America, native land of the financial crash of 2008 and ensuing Great Recession, the shapes of other possible worlds are emerging from the drifts. Some are frozen and dystopian, but others may harbour green shoots of hope.

When disaster strikes, acute stress disorders, especially among children, may follow. Yet the need for early psychosocial interventions is often overlooked, if not ignored.

Evo Morales began his second term as president of Bolivia by swearing in a cabinet made up of an equal number of women and men - unprecedented in this South American nation with a strong patriarchal tradition.