News headlines in January 2011, page 7

Food prices are set to rise in Colombia, due to the combined effects of soaring international prices and local crop losses after nine months of devastating rains. The government expects food prices to rise three percent in February, while independent analysts forecast an increase twice as high.

Latin America could see more Spanish investment in renewable energy if this otherwise strong sector in Spain is hurt in the war being waged by fossil fuel interests, according to expert Sergio de Otto.

Latin America could see more Spanish investment in renewable energy if this otherwise strong sector in Spain is hurt in the war being waged by fossil fuel interests, according to expert Sergio de Otto.

Freedom of the press could be seriously impacted across the world in the wake of the ongoing political revelations brought about by whistle-blowing websites such as Wikileaks, one of foremost constitutional law experts in the U.S. said Tuesday.

Ecuadorean immigrants have been put in an even more vulnerable position by the lingering economic crisis in the industrialised world, especially in Spain and the United States, the main destinations for migrants from Latin America.

The political stand-off between Alassane Ouattara, certified by the United Nations as winner of Nov. 28 elections, and the incumbent president, Laurent Gbagbo, who has refused to step down, is stretching into its eighth week.

The credibility of the Palestinian Authority (PA) on the Arab street has been further weakened by the release of the ‘Palestine Papers’, but ironically the release of the explosive documents by Al Jazeera could bolster support for the Palestinian cause internationally.

Egyptians have demonstrated in protests rare in size and ferocity against the three-decade rule of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.

Pakistan became the world’s top polio-endemic country in 2010 and is now the biggest source of the polio virus to countries declared polio-free many years ago. Due to the unrestricted movement of children along the long and porous Afghanistan-Pakistan border, both countries have begun to put in place a joint strategy to stem the tide of the ailment.

When an outbreak of dengue fever occurred in the hot and humid north of Australia’s Queensland state in late 2008, Nicola Strange was among hundreds of locals that contracted the mosquito-borne disease.