ENVIRONMENT: Big Donors Shifting Green Agenda

"Philanthro-capitalists" and more traditional foundations are addressing global problems like climate change with unprecedented zeal. But are their money and efforts being put to the best use?

ECONOMY: Increased Nuclear Energy Demand Boosts Namibia

The worldwide scramble for energy sources due to dwindling fossil fuel reserves has placed renewed emphasis on nuclear energy as solution for future needs. As a result, Namibia in south-western Africa is experiencing a uranium boom.

CLIMATE CHANGE: Arctic Oil and Gas Rush Alarms Scientists

As greenhouse gas pollution destroys Arctic ecosystems, countries like Canada are spending millions not to halt the destruction but to exploit it.

INDIA/US: Nuclear Waiver – Blow to Non-Proliferation

The special waiver granted to India by the Nuclear Suppliers' Group (NSG) from its nuclear trade rules is being seen as a massive setback to the cause of global nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament.

PARAGUAY-BRAZIL: Lugo to Seek New Terms for Itaipu Dam

Paraguay’s new government wants to increase ninefold the revenues the country takes in from the sale of its share of the energy generated by the Itaipú hydroelectric dam, which it runs jointly with Brazil.

LATIN AMERICA: Food Price Hikes Hit Poor Hard – ECLAC

The countries of Latin America have coped relatively well so far with the rising global food and fuel prices. But the main challenge they face is to focus more attention on the plight of the poor, experts said at a seminar being held in the Chilean capital.

INDIA/US: Lawmaker’s Disclosure May Torpedo Nuke Deal

Chances of the United States-India nuclear deal being completed have greatly receded with the release by a key U.S. lawmaker of a so-far-secret Bush administration document which says Washington will not sell sensitive nuclear technologies to India and will terminate nuclear commerce with it if India conducts a test.

POLITICS-US: Canada’s Tar Sands Lobbyists Focus on Democrats

As the U.S. election campaign kicks into overdrive, Canadian politicians and oil executives are stepping up lobbying efforts to make sure whoever controls the White House keeps purchasing notoriously dirty oil from the Alberta tar sands.

OIL-PERU: “The Ashaninka People Will Not Allow These Abuses”

"We will not allow the oil company to come in because it will bring pollution and we will suffer," said Medaly Pancho, a member of the Ashaninka community in the central Peruvian province of Junín. "We hunt and fish, we live our peaceful lives, and we don't want that to change."

POLITICS: Shanghai Cooperation Organisation Split on Georgia

Moscow’s decision to recognise the two separatist regions of Georgia as independent states has exposed the divergence of geopolitical interests within the six-nation Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO).

ENVIRONMENT: Amazon Increasingly Oily

More than 180 oil and natural gas fields extend across the western Amazon, shared by five South American countries and threatening biodiversity and indigenous lands, warns a study by U.S.-based organisations.

ICELAND: Filling Up on Hydrogen

Earlier this year, the Icelandic whale-watching boat Elding was fitted with a hydrogen-powered generator that fuels its lighting system, electric equipment and navigation machinery. It is the first of its kind in the world.

INDIA/US: Nuclear Deal Headed for Fiasco

As the tortuous negotiations for the United States-India nuclear deal enters its final stage, it becomes clear that India seriously underestimated the discomfort and opposition the agreement would arouse in many countries because of the special privileges granted to India, largely on New Delhi's terms.

POLITICS: Iran Could Reap Benefits of U.S.-Russian Tensions

Iran could emerge as a big winner, at least in the short term, from the rapidly escalating tensions between the United States and Russia over Moscow's intervention in Georgia, according to analysts here.

BRAZIL: The Complications of Coming into Sudden (Oil) Wealth

Brazil's social and economic future may depend, according to experts, on the way it ultimately handles the sudden oil wealth discovered deep under the Atlantic ocean off the country's southeastern coast.

Q&A: “Amazonas State Is in the Environmental Vanguard”

The Brazilian state of Amazonas is "a quarry of ideas and creativity" and is in the vanguard for having preserved 98 percent of its native forests, paying for environmental services, and enacting the pioneering Climate Change Act, says Nadia D'Ávila Ferreira, the state's secretary for the environment and sustainable development.

INDIA/US: Suppliers' Group Stalls Nuclear Deal

Dashing hopes that the United States-India nuclear cooperation deal would sail through the Nuclear Suppliers' Group (NSG), a two-day meeting in Vienna of the 45-nation association has failed to produce a consensus on a U.S. drafted text.

DEVELOPMENT: Food, Fuel and Water Crises Converging

A spectre is haunting the cities and villages of most developing nations, warns a senior official of a World Bank-affiliated organisation.

MIDDLE EAST: In the Race for Renewable Energy Sources

As the world scrambles to develop renewable energy resources (RES), the oil-rich Gulf countries that benefit from high prices on fossil fuels are making sure that they do not get left behind.

EQUATORIAL GUINEA: Human Rights Drowning in Oil

The oil interests of Angola, Brazil and Portugal could pave the way for former Spanish colony Equatorial Guinea to become the ninth member of the Community of Portuguese Language Countries (CPLP) two years from now, despite the country’s poor human rights record.

PARAGUAY: Concerns, Tension Rise with Water Level in Yacyreta Dam

Hundreds of people living in the Paraguayan border city of Encarnación are worried about flooding as the result of a rise in water level in the Yacyretá hydroelectric dam, an issue that is also causing tension between Paraguay and Argentina.