News headlines in January 2011, page 11

Upset over a policy that prevented him from buying subsidised food, Egyptian restaurant owner Abdou Abdel Moneim travelled to Cairo to find someone in parliament to help. When security officers prevented him from submitting his complaint to MPs entering parliament, the 49-year-old man doused himself in fuel and cursed the Egyptian regime as he disappeared into a ball of fire.

Farmers' protests and the rise in corn tortilla prices in late December put temporary brakes on the Mexican Senate, which was preparing to lift the national ban on utilising maize to make fuel alcohol, or ethanol.

In what could be a seismic shift in international attitudes towards Israel’s illegal occupation of East Jerusalem, European diplomats are calling for strong action against Israeli policy in a secret document made public recently.

Half of the Czech Republic’s population could face water shortages because of climate change, a top climate change expert has warned.

It is mere ignorance that stands in the way of Brazil having a broad network of navigable waterways and leads to the wasted potential of the country's great rivers, laments José Alex de Oliva, superintendent of inland navigation at Brazil's national waterways transport regulator (ANTAQ).

'We are a peaceful people. We don't like war. We don't want police and military on our land,' said Erity Teave, an indigenous activist from the Chilean-administered Easter Island in the Pacific Ocean.

It took María de los Ángeles Carrillo, a native craftswoman from Mexico, eight months to weave a decorative junco reed basket, for which she won an 8,000 dollar prize from the Mexican government.

For years, the various campaigns for sustainable use of forests just passed Pascal Segatashya by. But Rwanda's ambitious Forest Conservation Project eventually found him - and it has transformed his life and livelihood.

South Africa’s recently-awarded tender for antiretroviral drugs halved drug costs for the world’s largest ARV programme. Driven by a better-prepared and more aggressive government, the deal may stand up to criticism better than initially thought.

Claiming it is the best answer to an escalating murder rate, the eight-month-old People's Partnership coalition has tabled legislation to amend Trinidad and Tobago's Constitution to resume executions.