News headlines in July 2011, page 7

A transboundary water project is reinforcing the fight against food insecurity and poverty along the Komati River which flows through South Africa, Swaziland and Mozambique.

While recession in the U.S. delivered a series of record lows, from crashing property prices to residual birth and marriage rates, an analysis of new census data suggests it accomplished at least one record high - the wealth gap between whites and minorities.

Government leaders, U.N. officials and representatives from over 400 hundred youth organisations concluded two days of talks Tuesday on such issues as the importance of youth in eradicating poverty and how to stabilise the global economic system in the face of myriad challenges.

'Our American family will only be as strong as our Latino community,' U.S. President Barack Obama said in his address at the National Council of La Raza's annual conference in Washington on Monday.

The United Nations Human Rights Committee confirmed the central role of freedom of expression in human rights, making it clear that it can only be limited in the most exceptional circumstances, and calling for the first time for unrestricted public access to official information.

Rwanda is the first country in the world where women outnumber men in parliament, with women occupying 45 out of 80 seats. However, despite this, experts say that the country still needs a gender equality perspective on how national resources and programmes are implemented.

As Haiti struggles to recover from the deadly January 2010 earthquake that killed over 200,000 people and forced nearly 1.5 million into camps, international funding is failing to keep pace with the generous pledges made last year, and in- fighting in Haiti's new government is hindering the disbursement of aid.

Libyan officials have accused NATO of killing at least eight people in an air raid on a food warehouse and medical clinic in Zlitan, east of Tripoli.

Senior Indian and Pakistani officials have held discussions in New Delhi, the Indian capital, that will lay the groundwork for formal peace talks set for Wednesday.

The murder of journalist Yolanda Ordaz, whose body was found Tuesday in the eastern Mexican city of Veracruz, once again threw into relief the dangers that reporters face in this country, which in the case of women are compounded by discriminatory and sexist treatment.