News headlines in May 2010, page 15

Anti-death penalty activists meeting in the Austyrian capital, to discuss the eighth quinquennial report of the United Nations Secretary-General, have hailed a worldwide trend towards total and universal abolition of capital punishment.

Cars promise mobility, and in a largely rural setting they provide it. But in an urbanising world, where more than half of us live in cities, there is an inherent conflict between the automobile and the city.

'It sounds incredible, but it's just a matter of a letter that wasn't turned in on time,' Ecuador's attorney general said in regards to the Financial Action Task Force decision to qualify the country as 'posing a risk to the international financial system.'

Although the European Union's financial bailout of Greece to avoid contagion of the crisis to other eurozone countries has had positive effects, South America is not ruling out collateral damage, especially from austerity measures demanded from Spain and Portugal and being considered for other EU countries.

Only hours after the U.S. Justice Department said it plans to pursue a lawsuit accusing KBR Inc. of taking kickbacks from two subcontractors on Iraq-related work, the Army announced it would award a 568-million-dollar no-bid contract to the former Halliburton Corporation subsidiary.

As big a story as this week’s crackdown on anti-government protests in Thailand is the significant number of journalists killed or hurt, and media professionals and organisations threatened during the country’s most serious political conflict in years.

An accomplished farmer who won the coveted Woman Farmer of the Year Award in 2008, Thabile Dlamini-Gooday wants to uplift the standard of other women in agriculture. She believes that if women farmers were to work together they could fight hunger and significantly reduce poverty among themselves.

Africa’s economic boom, driven by oil, has undermined the idea that democracy is a prerequisite for economic development on the continent.

Supporters of amaranth have been trying for decades to bring this millennia-old grain back from oblivion. Known for its high nutritional content, it is now being promoted as a way to help modern-day Mexico confront two of its dietary ills: malnutrition and obesity.

Talib Hussain, 29, became the sole breadwinner of his family of seven after his father suffered a stroke that left him half paralysed. Hussain brings home 4,000 Pakistani rupees (about 47 U.S. dollars) monthly, which he dutifully turns over to his mother.