News headlines in February 2011, page 2

British actor Colin Firth's sensitivity and skill in portraying one man's determination to overcome stuttering, in 'The King's Speech', did more than any campaign in Argentina to show people that with timely intervention, the lives of tens of thousands of children can change.

Zimbabwe's government recently announced that the country had run out of the critical painkiller morphine. It was just the latest development in a debilitating health care crisis that has seen hospitals turn away patients because of drug shortages.

As Southern Africa prepares itself for another year of economic partnership agreement (EPA) negotiations with the European Union, trade analysts say any deal should be about more than just liberalised trade.

The feasibility study looking at connecting Malawi's electricity grid to Mozambique's Cahora-Bassa hydropower station was completed 15 years ago; a price for power was long ago agreed by the respective governments: but somehow the project is yet to go ahead.

Five years since Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf was elected president in Liberia, it appears there is a systematic campaign to remind African women that their place is still in the kitchen. And advertisers of detergent powders and other cleaning products appear to be the main culprits.

As nations evacuate their citizens from the violence gripping Libya, many African migrant workers are being targeted because they are suspected of being mercenaries hired by Muammar Gaddafi, the Libyan leader.

The Egyptian people have every reason to be proud. They have provided the world with a shining example of how to overthrow a dictator within three weeks with hardly any violence - their message of freedom, unity and solidarity will remain for years in the collective memory of the Middle East and the entire world.

Picture a mother, hunching over a field with a Medieval-style hoe in hand, spending day after day tilling the soil under a beating hot sun - only to retire home to care for her family without electricity or running water.

For the first time in years, none of the Caribbean leaders appearing at the Caribbean Community's end-of-summit news conference uttered the words, 'We had a very good meeting.'

It takes roughly three to five centuries for the average plastic bottle to biodegrade. But some environmentalists have found new uses for it, turning it into durable material for building classrooms.