News headlines in January 2011, page 12

Flood alert levels are on orange in parts of Mozambique as disaster management services mobilise to respond to flooding potentially as bad as the catastrophe in 2000. Heavy downpours are steadily swelling the Southern African country's rivers, while authorities watch rainfall and water level indicators in countries upstream with a wary eye.

Forty-seven-year-old Gulsher Masih has been living in constant fear since fleeing his native village of Chuk Jhumra, near Faisalabad, a year ago.

After Prime Minister Manmohan Singh refusal to divulge details of billions of dollars allegedly stashed away abroad by Indians, anti-corruption crusaders are banking their hopes on promised Wikileaks revelations.

A first-of-its-kind satellite tracking project to monitor leopards may help the Indian government formulate a more effective wildlife policy, and prevent conflict between humans and wild animals.

Middle East countries have seen the largest increase of illicit outflows of funds to richer nations, depriving the developing nations of much needed development money, a new international report shows.

While expectations for any major breakthroughs in the latest round of talks between Iran and the major powers are virtually nonexistent, the two-day meeting that begins Friday in Istanbul could help ease growing tensions over Iran's nuclear programme.

On the tail end of Chinese leader Hu Jintao's three-day visit to the U.S. capital, observers are cautiously pleased with what they see as a constructive summit between the two nation's leaders, but eager to see whether this week's promises will translate into tangible results.

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.

'In Mexico, we have let the violent ones do the talking,' says journalist Marcela Turati, author of 'Fuego Cruzado' (Crossfire), a new book that tells the stories of victims of President Felipe Calderón's war on drugs, which has left an official death toll of 30,000 in four years.

When the U.N. Development Programme (UNDP) formulates its annual Human Development Index (HDI), it uses several socioeconomic indicators - including life expectancy, gross national income and literacy - to rank member states and also measure quality of life in these countries.