News headlines in 2009, page 27

As Finnish energy major Neste Oil scales up production of its ‘green’ diesel NExBTL, environmental activists fear that more land will go under palm oil plantations at the expense of Southeast Asia’s threatened rainforests.

Sam Kubo had gone to lease out his 600 hectares of land in Kayunga district. But instead he went to his death.

Being the world’s largest producer and exporter of ethanol it is natural for the Brazilian government and its partners to push biofuels as the only real alternative for a world trying wean itself away from fossil fuels that contribute to global warming.

As the threat of nuclear weapons looms large over the very existence of life on earth, Dr Sue Wareham, International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear weapons’ (ICAN) Australian board member, is calling for a speedy abolition of these weapons and the rejection of nuclear power as a solution to climate change.

A poll released today finds that support among the United States public for President Barack Obama’s troop 'surge' in Afghanistan has risen sharply since he delivered his speech last week. But, a plurality of the U.S. public do not believe Obama will follow through on his commitment to begin a withdrawal of U.S. forces in 18-months.

Two blocks from the Metro station on the busy M-1 Line, the first indication that pedestrians are slipping into the space-time continuum known as the 'Free City' is the ubiquitous graffiti and occasional 'boom!' of small explosive devices like M-80s echoing through the cobbled streets.

Porfirio Lobo set out on an international tour Tuesday in an effort to gain recognition from the international community of his recent triumph in the presidential elections organised by the de facto government in Honduras that seized power five months ago.

Opposition parties are troubled by what they say is government’s strategy to keep them out of the general elections in May 2010.

A landmark U.N. treaty on women’s rights, which will be 30 years old next week, is in danger of being politically undermined by a slew of reservations by 22 countries seeking exemptions from some of the convention’s legal obligations.

Latin America has come to Copenhagen with the goal that the wealthy nations of the North pay their climate debt by reducing greenhouse gas emissions and providing resources to developing nations. But facing the risk that this strategy could fail, the Latin American representatives are also willing to accept some compromises.