News headlines in August 2011, page 17

Extreme weather conditions predicted because of climate change in Namibia are likely to have a tremendous effect on the 70 percent of the country’s people who live in rural areas and depend heavily on agriculture.

A Venezuelan municipality where the main industry is oil refining, and that has an import-export 'free zone', is set to become a plastic bag-free area.

When the global economy was hit by a severe recession in 2008- 2009, the negative fallout impacted heavily on the world's developing nations, hindering the U.N.'s key development goals, including plans for the elimination of extreme poverty and hunger worldwide by 2015.

You may walk past a 'Pret A Manger' shop every day on your way to work. You might include Pret A Manger's fresh sandwiches, wraps and salads in your regular rotation of lunch options. And you still might be wondering what the name of the shop actually means.

The appearance of Hosni Mubarak in the opening of his trial reassured millions of Egyptians that their revolutionary struggle was not in vain. But, as Egypt and the world watch the resumption of proceedings today, the truth about Mubarak's ability to participate in his trial is still unclear.

Canada has flexed its military muscles, first in Afghanistan for nine years alongside NATO forces, and now in Libya in its supply of ships and combat planes for the rebel forces, but little debate has happened on the ground among Canadians themselves on this direction.

The donor base for UN Women has continued to widen since the new UN entity was established last year, according to Lakshmi Puri, Assistant Secretary-General and Deputy Executive Director of UN Women.

A new literary trend is gaining momentum in Serbia. It revolves around a phenomenon sociologists are describing as 'prison literature'.

Tunisia’s border with Libya has been a major lifeline, keeping residents in Ben Guerdane economically afloat - so when the vital trade route is blocked by the municipality or by protestors, tempers flare.

Conservative governments and centre-right parties in Europe were attacking multiculturalism and denigrating Muslim immigrants long before Norwegian right-wing extremist Anders Behring Breivik used similar arguments to justify mass killings in Oslo and Utoya Island.