News headlines in July 2012, page 8

CAIRNS, Australia, Jul 24 (IPS) - Most corals thrive only in shallow waters, where there is enough light for them to grow. But the rapid rise in sea level, due to the melting of polar ice, is making these conditions increasingly scarce.

UNITED NATIONS, Jul 24 (IPS) - As part of its overall theme to educate the public about the state of the world's oceans, the international exhibition Expo 2012 will shift its focus next month to what has been described as "possibly the most significant legal instrument" of the 21st century: the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).

BELGRADE, Jul 24 (IPS) - In the decade following the break-up of Yugoslavia, it was rare for a statement made by a foreign politician to stir heated debate in the Eastern European bloc.

ROME, Jul 24 (IPS) - Six months have passed since the beginning of the United Nations International Year of the Cooperatives (IYC). There can be no doubt it has fallen far short of its goal of calling the world's attention to this formidable instrument of social production.

MONTEVIDEO, Jul 24 (IPS) - A record number of sea turtles are turning up on Uruguayan beaches along the Atlantic Ocean and Río de la Plata this Southern hemisphere winter, suffering from cold shock and hypothermia.

CAIRO, Jul 24 (IPS) - During the uprising that ended Hosni Mubarak’s 29-year rule, Egyptian protesters stormed state security headquarters in Cairo. Inside they discovered a trove of documents – including surveillance reports on activists, transcripts of telephone conversations, and intercepted emails – that revealed the meticulous records the state kept on the activities of its citizens.

WASHINGTON, Jul 24 (IPS) - Women across Asia are being shut out from prosperous forestland because of a paradigm geared towards male ownership, according to a new report by the Rights and Resources Initiative (RRI), an environmental non-governmental organisation.

WASHINGTON, Jul 23 (IPS) - As more than 20,000 health workers, scholars and activists from around the world gather here this week for a major biannual AIDS conference, observers are warning that U.S. government proposals to cut HIV/AIDS-related funding could undermine the significant potential to deal a decisive blow to the disease in the near future.

UNITED NATIONS, Jul 23 (IPS) - Just before the Western-inspired resolution against Syria was vetoed in the U.N. Security Council (UNSC) last week, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov was quoted as saying the United Nations was trying to support a revolutionary movement inside the country - which happens to have strong political, economic and military links to Moscow.

WASHINGTON, Jul 23 (IPS) - With the Bashar Al-Assad regime badly bloodied by last week's assassination of its top security officials and fierce fighting over the weekend in both Damascus and Aleppo, the administration of President Barack Obama is being pressed on the U.S. role in the presumed end-game.