News headlines in January 2011, page 21

'The fish are disappearing.' The words and the world-weary gaze could belong to a fisherman from almost anywhere, as stocks come under pressure due to over-exploitation all over the world.

While U.S. officials took strong exception to outgoing Brazilian President Inacio Lula da Silva's recent complaint that 'nothing has changed' in Washington's relations with Latin America two years into the Barack Obama administration, many independent U.S. analysts ruefully nodded their heads.

Just over two months after the death of her husband, Argentine President Cristina Fernández is the front-runner in the polls for this year's presidential elections. She is also the politician with the best image in the country.

On the eve of the first anniversary of the earthquake that killed almost half a million people in Haiti, international NGOs have called for world leaders to commit to the billions in funding pledges made to the devastated country last year. Of the 5.75 billion dollars committed over two years by the top 24 global donors, less than half of the promised funding had been distributed to struggling Haitians as of November 2010.

The new Executive Director of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), Dr. Babatunde Osotimehin, was sworn-in by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. Only the fourth UNFPA head since the Fund began operations in 1969, Dr. Osotimehin was minister of health in Nigeria and an anti-AIDS crusader. He holds the rank of Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations.

'The most terrifying thing is the memory loss. I can’t recall anything after I was knocked out - and for a long time afterwards,' says Nasos Iliopoulos. His features are tense as he narrates his violent altercation with riot police.

A concerted effort to formally document the magnitude and directions of climate trends in the Eastern Himalayas and thereby decide regional adaptation strategies is critical to ensure the region’s water security, according to water experts.

By clamping down on the Facebook.com social networking service, Vietnam’s ruling Communist Party is revealing its discomfort with the rapidly expanding avenue for free expression even as it pushes to transform the once poor agrarian nation into a modern industrial society by 2020.

Muslims are facing a dark future of repression and torture in Uzbekistan for years to come as the government’s relentless campaign of religious suppression continues.

It's hardly news that the U.S. love affair with electronic gadgets has a dark side. The global toll on natural resources and the potential health and environmental hazards are staggering.