News headlines in February 2010, page 22

Women's movements have played a critical role in creating political space for female participation in politics around the world. In fact, there are more women in government today than ever before.

It was Isabel Cortés, the family matriarch, who started the project. In 1990, she started looking for a way to market xoconostle, the sour variety of the nopal cactus fruit that is abundant in this arid part of central Mexico, in the Mezquital valley.

Reckless greed on Wall Street is a dog-bites-man story. Still, the renewed feeding frenzy of the alpha dogs of finance in the embers of the bonfire of their own vanities has inspired amazement and disgust across the political spectrum.

After India’s Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh announced Tuesday a ban on the cultivation of Bt brinjal, the country’s first genetically modified (GM) food crop, food security experts and activists said this major farming country has been saved from a biodiversity disaster.

Ottawa's refusal to repatriate a former child soldier, 23-year-old Omar Khadr, back to Canada to face justice in the country of his birth opens to the door to a trial before a controversial U.S. military commission process that has been challenged for its use of evidence gleaned from interrogation after torture.

Indicating further integration with its closest neighbour and ally's foreign policy priorities, the Canadian government is in the advanced stages of establishing a foundation to promote liberal democracy, akin to the controversial U.S. National Endowment for Democracy.

Malaysia’s reputation as a progressive, tolerant and moderate Muslim state is now at stake as the country’s best known democratic leader Anwar Ibrahim stands trial for alleged sodomy and risks being jailed for many years if declared guilty.

Pressure exerted on the Palestinian Authority (PA) by international and regional officials has given Gazans a last minute reprieve, albeit temporary, from plunging into darkness and plummeting temperatures.

Sri Lankan journalists, for whom intimidation, threats, assault and killings seem to have become unavoidable professional hazards, are bracing themselves for a fresh confrontation with the government as curbs on reporting intensify.

Domestic worker Beena Joy, 35, came back empty-handed after losing her job in recession-hit United Arab Emirates, but soon found that getting laid-off has given her a happier life back home here in this southern Indian city.