News headlines in August 2011, page 25

Heather Purser, a member of the Suquamish tribe, whose reservation sits in Washington State, came out to her family at the age of 16, but has never felt completely accepted by her people.

Last week's appointment of a ranking member of Iran's influential Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as the country's new oil minister could lead to a more unaccountable and unpredictable military with greater influence on the government in Tehran, analysts say.

The historic 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro marked one of the world's seminal international conferences on the environment, creating or reinforcing a slew of U.N. treaties and protocols on climate change, biodiversity, desertification and forests.

The ongoing political turmoil in Libya has derailed plans for a major summit meeting of developing nations scheduled to take place in Tripoli in October.

Long years of civil war and instability set off a crippling decline in coffee production in the Democratic Republic of Congo: the country's output in 2010 was less than a tenth the harvest twenty years earlier. Now the DRC government has a strategy to bolster recovery of the sector.

As the widespread famine in the Horn of Africa takes a turn for the worse, humanitarian aid organizations are lamenting the lack of aid being delivered to those in need and have called on the United States and the rest of the world to step up relief efforts, while redoubling their own efforts.

The introduction of some of Europe’s most far-reaching taxes on unhealthy foods has sparked renewed debate about the effect of such levies on poor people. The taxes, which were passed by the Hungarian parliament in July and will take effect on Sep. 1, apply to a range of foods with high salt and sugar levels, including chocolates, ice creams, energy drinks, biscuits and crisps.

Ecuador sees the loans it has agreed with China as 'good news,' because they are long-term, and all that is required in return is 'oil, and not the horrendous adjustments imposed by the IMF (International Monetary Fund),' leftwing Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa told analysts critical of the size and high interest rates of the loans.

'The people demand social justice!' Across the country's major cities, over 300,000 demonstrators, five percent of Israel's Jewish population, chanted the rallying call for the third consecutive Saturday.

The introduction of some of Europe’s most far-reaching taxes on unhealthy foods has sparked renewed debate about the effect of such levies on poor people.