ENVIRONMENT-JAPAN: Readying for Life Without Bluefin Tuna Dishes

Fish vendors in this seafood crazy country are yet to recover from the shock of seeing their government accept a drastic 50 percent cut in Japan's catches of the prized southern bluefin tuna.

HEALTH: Report Exposes a Free-Market Famine

In a world of paradox and plenty, 852 million people are starving while one billion people are overweight, with 300 million of them considered medically obese.

ENVIRONMENT: France Takes a Dubiously Clean Road

France got into first gear for a clean drive this month with the opening of a bio fuel pump. But barely after the start, environmentalists are saying that the ecological balance sheet from using this green fuel may still be negative.

SOUTH AMERICA: Debate on Infrastructure Mega-Projects Finally Begins

Rather late and somewhat quietly, civil society organisations have begun to discuss the impact of the Initiative for the Integration of Regional Infrastructure in South America (IIRSA), launched by the region's governments in 2000, which is planning 335 major projects.

ENVIRONMENT-JAPAN: A Cut Off For Free Chopsticks?

China's decision to raise prices on its exports of wooden chopsticks is proving something of a problem for Japanese restaurants and the like, that have long offered them to customers for free.

ENERGY-COLOMBIA: Harvesting Sunshine for Biofuels

The sun generates energy; sugar cane, cassava, African oil palm, beets and potatoes store it; and Colombians are determined to transform the energy concentrated in these crops into biofuels.

EL SALVADOR-US: Free Trade Deal a Menace to Local Producers

Seven months after the Central American free trade treaty with the United States came into effect, small-scale producers and economists in El Salvador say that it only benefits a few sectors of society, to the detriment of most national production and thousands of jobs.

MALAYSIA: Surplus Electricity – But Bigger Dams Planned

Even before the problem-ridden Bakun Dam in eastern Sarawak can be completed, officials are talking of plans to build two more hydroelectric dams in the state, one of which could make Bakun look puny by comparison.

ENVIRONMENT-COLOMBIA: Controversy over Forestry Law Simmers On

The implementation of Colombia's General Forestry Law, enacted by the government in April, has reopened the debate on this legislation as a result of the appearance on a government Internet site of a regulation process drawn up by an international consultancy in the industry.

LATIN AMERICA: Family Farms – Durable but Fragile

Family farms are not disappearing in Latin America, but they are becoming more vulnerable, requiring government policies to ensure their economic and social inclusion, experts and farmers said at a seminar organised by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) in the Chilean capital.

ENVIRONMENT-CHINA: Afflicted by Automobile Addiction

On a recent 'Car Free Day' in Beijing, the capital was clogged with vehicles and the sky a drab shade of grey. The sheer number of cars on the roads had made a mockery of the city initiative to make dwellers ride their bicycles or use the public transport.

CHILE: State of the Environment Report Confirms Activists’ Warnings

In spite of efforts by the public and private sectors, Chile is still losing its wealth of natural resources, according to experts commissioned by the government to produce a report on the state of the country's environment. Environmental organisations point out that this conclusion confirms the warnings they have been voicing for years.

TRADE: Water Scarcity Crossing National Borders

Historically, water scarcity was a local issue. It was up to national governments to balance water supply and demand. Now this is changing as scarcity crosses national boundaries via the international grain trade.

ENERGY-PORTUGAL: Riding the Wave of the Future

Atlantic Ocean waves are to light up 1,500 homes in the north of Portugal. The first 2.25 megawatts of electricity produced from wave power will be brought ashore at Aguçadoura, on the northern coast, as of October.

ENVIRONMENT: Forests Worth Far More Alive Than Dead

Boreal forests provide 250 billion dollars a year in ecosystem services like reducing atmospheric carbon and water filtration, but which have gone unacknowledged by governments and industry, experts say.

FINANCE: U.S. Warned on War Spending and Deficits

One of the world's most exclusive business clubs warned the United States Tuesday that its open-ended national security and war expenditures, along with tax cuts that led to large budget deficits, could affect the country's status as a powerful economic force.

ENERGY-LATIN AMERICA: Biofuel Boom Sparks Environmental Fears

The use of biofuels is on the rise in Latin America and is feeding dreams of abundance in countries like Argentina and Colombia. But the experience of Brazil, a pioneer in this alternative energy, raises questions about their potential negative environmental consequences.

ENERGY-BRAZIL: Growth Without Guzzling

The rise in energy consumption in Brazil has always outstripped gross domestic product growth, but this can and should be reversed in favour of sustainable development, according to experts, who say the benefits, including financial gains, would be enormous.

FINANCE: World Bank Profits From Poor Countries – Report

The World Bank receives more from developing countries than what it disburses to them says a new report released Tuesday as finance ministers endorsed a controversial new Bank plan to tackle corruption in developing countries.

DEVELOPMENT: Real Aid to LDCs Declining

Meeting last year in Gleneagles, Scotland, the G8 group of rich countries pledged to make African debt relief, accelerated aid, and increased trade their top priorities. One year later, most of those initiatives have not borne fruit. The only part of the programme running according to schedule is debt relief, which can look very good on paper but translates into very little improvement on the ground.

RIGHTS-INDIA: Communist Gov’t Evicts Farmers for Industries

Peasants living on the edges of this eastern metropolis are seething in anger at the world's longest serving provincial communist government which wants them to hand over their lush green farmlands for an automobile plant being set up by the Tata group, a flag bearer of capitalist enterprise in this country.