ABRIDGED VERSION OF THE 2960-WORD ORIGINAL ARTICLE, ALSO AVAILABLE FOR PUBLICATION: EUROPE SELF-SERVING IN TRADE TALKS WITH AFRICA

The European Commission is pursuing a hidden agenda in its negotiations of Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) with African countries, writes Demba Moussa Dembele, Director of the African Forum on Alternatives. In this analysis, Dembele writes that the EC, claiming it wants to promote trade and investment in Africa, included the so-called \'\'Singapore issues\'\' dropped from 2003 WTO discussions following the strong opposition of African and other developing countries, which do not want to lock themselves into binding agreements on elements that are key policy instruments in their development process, particularly for industrialization. Such binding investment agreements would straightjacket African countries for the foreseeable future. This is why African and other ACP countries have emphatically reiterated their opposition to including these policies in the EPA negotiations. The best way to promote trade and investment in Africa is to address the fundamental issues of development raised by African countries, by assisting them in capacity- and infrastructure- building, in strengthening the process of regional integration, in developing the capacity to transform their raw materials domestically, and in building strong regional markets.

UN DEATH PENALTY VOTE CAN HELP STOP CYCLE OF REVENGE

Such is the world sentiment against the death penalty - with notable exceptions like the USA, China, and Singapore - that a resolution calling for a moratorium on executions and the abolition of capital punishment is to go before the UN General Assembly in October, writes Desmond Tutu, archbishop of Cape Town, Nobel Prize for Peace 1984. In this analysis, Tutu writes that the time has come to abolish the death penalty worldwide. The case for abolition becomes more compelling with each passing year. Everywhere experience shows us that executions brutalise both those directly involved in the process and the society that carries them out. Nowhere has it been shown that the death penalty reduces crime or political violence. In country after country, it is used disproportionately against the poor or against racial or ethnic minorities. It is often used as a tool of political repression. It is imposed and inflicted arbitrarily. It is irrevocable and results inevitably in the execution of people innocent of any crime. It is a violation of fundamental human rights.

Ozone Treaty Cools Down Global Warming

The United States was the protagonist in talks for moving faster to eliminate gases that damage the atmospheric ozone layer and aggravate climate change.

Algae Against Climate Change?

Scientists are testing the capacity of algae to absorb carbon dioxide and to produce from their own biomass a fuel that is less polluting than gasoline.

Ecobreves – CUBA: Kids and Adults in Nature Clean-Up

Hundreds of people in Cuba took part in the campaign "To Clean the World", sponsored by the United Nations Environment Program, reforesting and cleaning up coastal areas.

Ecobreves – CHILE: Mapuches Denounce Government at the UN

The Chilean government should turn in the report about the denunciation presented by ecologists and Mapuche Indians of the central region of Araucanía "if it wants to hold a post in 2008 on the UN Human Rights Council."

Ecobreves – VENEZUELA: A Plan to Save the Amphibians

Scientific and environmental institutions drafted a plan to protect the 320 species of toads, frogs and salamanders (five percent of the world's total) that live in Venezuela.

NEPAL: PEACE HICCUP

After the heady excitement of last year\'s pro-democracy uprising in Nepal that forced King Gyanendra to restore parliament, Nepal\'s eight-party coalition has fallen apart with the Maoists quitting government on Tuesday. The move did not come as a surprise, since the ex-guerrillas had been warning of just this for months. But it does put in doubt the fate of elections for the constituent assembly scheduled November 22, writes Kunda Dixit, editor of the Nepali Times newspaper and author of A People War. In this article the author writes that most of the estimated 15,000 ex-guerrillas are interned in camps supervised by a UN monitoring mission in Nepal and their weapons are under lock and key. On Tuesday, the UN expressed concern about the Maoists quitting the government, saying this would jeopardize the peace process. The hope now is that behind-the-scenes negotiations currently underway will produce an agreement that the first meeting of the constituent assembly after elections will declare Nepal a republic. It remains to be seen whether the Maoists will agree to this, and if they do elections may still be possible. Otherwise they may be postponed. Nepal\'s peace process is not in jeopardy, and the Maoists are not about to go back to war. But it is proof of just how difficult it is for a group that has pursued armed struggle to transform itself into a pluralistic, non-violent political party.

MAKING GLOBALISATION GOOD FOR ALL

Increasing trade restrictions is the wrong response to anxieties generated by the rapid pace of globalization and would cause unthinkable damage, writes Pascal Lamy, Director-General of the World Trade Organization (WTO). In this analysis, Lamy writes that more often than not, the real cause of pain is not trade opening but the failure to accompany the efficiency gains it brings with economic policies that would amplify its benefits. Trade opening involves a built-in asymmetry: while the millions who experience gains in purchasing power from trade opening are usually unaware of the cause, the thousands whom it hurts can easily identify the source of their pain. For politicians, this asymmetry is difficult to cope with and too often the easy way out is to treat foreigners as scapegoats. The multilateral arena continues to be the most cost-effective way to negotiate trade matters. This is especially true for medium and small developing countries, who have much less negotiating power in bilateral negotiations with big partners than they do in a multilateral setting.

Amazon Logging Means Short-Lived Prosperity

Life in the Amazon is marked by waves of ephemeral bonanza followed by depression, says a study of economic, environmental and social indicators from the last three decades.

Canada Losing Water Through NAFTA

Water resources are being negotiated in the North American integration process. Experts warn that Canada will come out the loser in this deal.

Ecobreves – GLOBAL: Ozone Protocol Also Curbs Climate Change

Twenty years after the Montreal Protocol entered into force, United Nations officials are celebrating the fact that this pact has gone beyond its objective of protecting the atmospheric ozone layer to reducing emissions of gases that cause climate change.

Ecobreves – MEXICO: Dolphins Mistreated and Killed in Captivity

Corruption and complicity of authorities allows some 20 dolphin aquariums to operate in Mexico, with more than half dying prematurely from pneumonia, stress and trauma from beatings.

Ecobreves – BRAZIL: Sugarcane Doesn't Need the Amazon

The ethanol fuel boom is driving the expansion of sugarcane plantations in Roraima, Brazil's northernmost state, because of its stable climate and flat terrain -- ideal for mechanized harvest.

POPE BENEDICT XVI IS LEADING THE CHURCH ASTRAY

The world is suffering from a clear crisis of meaning caused by the irrationality of world economics and politics and the general crisis of religion, which is the natural source of hope and ethics. Today almost all religions are contaminated by the evil of fundamentalism, which is frequently the basis of terrorism, Leonardo Boff, a Brazilian theologian and environmentalist, is a member of the Commission of the Earth Charter. In this article Boff writes that the search for religious peace has not been joined by the Roman Catholic Church which has exhibited an increasingly closed attitude that has lead to positions that are clearly fundamentalist and exclusionary and are reflected in the speeches of the current Pope. The doctrinal strategy of Benedict XVI consists of a direct confrontation with modernity guided by a cultural pessimism that is unacceptable in someone who should know that the Spirit is in humanity and is not a monopoly of the Church, and that salvation is open to all. Its principal social base now lies in lay movements characterised by mediocre thought, submission to the authorities, obedience to the laws of the market, and a preference for big media spectacles over the confrontation of poverty, injustice, and threats to the environment.

Small Improvements in Hurricane Preparedness

The aftermath of Hurricane Mitch in 1998 marked the beginning of some protection efforts in Honduras, but there is not yet a national policy for reducing the country's vulnerability to hurricanes.

Global Warming Fuels Chinese Inflation

A persistent drought threatens the harvest of grains in China, driving up food prices.

Ecobreves – CHILE: Warning on Salmon Farms in Earthquake Zone

The environmental group Oceana has urged the Chilean government to take a cautionary attitude in taking a decision to renew authorization for raising salmon in floating cages in the Aysén fjord, 1,600 km south of the capital.

Ecobreves – HONDURAS: Reforesting the Capital's “Lungs”

Fruit and timber trees -- 300,000 of them -- have been planted over the past two years on Juan A. Laínez hill, once one of the Honduran capital's main green spaces, and environmental "lungs".

Ecobreves – CUBA: The Return of a Natural Pool

A natural pool, Los Cangilones, along the Máximo River in the central Cuban province of Camagüey, will once again receive bathers year-round, after being rescued from contamination from the waste of a nearby fish farm.

Ecobreves – VENEZUELA: Sea Turtles Faithful to Their Beaches

A hawksbill turtle (Eretmochelys imbricata) that was marked with a metal plate three years ago has returned to lay eggs in Macuro, on the northeastern Venezuelan peninsula of Paria.