News headlines in March 2010, page 4

Environment groups have warned that Eastern Europe is plagued with serious and potentially dangerous waste disposal problems as new figures reveal the region has Europe's lowest recycling rates.

The world's poor appear to have become pawns in a political battle over the European Union's (EU) new diplomatic corps.

A century ago, when the Danube was still blue, it teemed with beluga sturgeon, as did the Rhine with salmon. But industrialisation and the construction of canals and dams have destroyed the habitat of both species of fish.

For the past 14 years, the non-profit company set up by the U.S. Congress to provide legal services for the poor has been forced to short-change the needy because of severe government restrictions on how it can use its funding, critics charge.

Shortly after it informed the world of the discovery of three new species of frogs, the environmental organisation Fundación Andígena closed its doors in Venezuela this month due to lack of financial support.

Nearly two of every three male juveniles arrested in Afghanistan are physically abused, according to a study based on interviews with 40 percent of all those now incarcerated in the country's juvenile justice system.

Rinki Kumari’s white laminate-topped desk at the Bank of India’s branch here in Sahdeokhap village in eastern Bihar state is easily the busiest, with men, women and even children crowding around her.

By now, Pakistan’s National Games should have been underway, with spectators cheering on the men and women competing in them. Instead, athletes and officials are ruing how militancy and violence have caused the games’ postponement.

Respected Ugandan political economist Yash Tandon has added his voice to the call for a moratorium on the negotiations between African countries and the European Union (EU) on the trade deals known as economic partnership agreements (EPAs).

Iraq's major political forces are beginning what is likely to be a lengthy and uncertain process of talks to form a government. A key question is whether Iraq's politically diverse groups will join forces together based on ideological, ethnic, sectarian or merely pragmatist considerations.