WorldFailure

Many nations lag in plan to slow extinctions by 2020: U.N.
By Alister Doyle and David Fogarty
28 September 2012

(Reuters) - Many nations need to do more to slow extinctions of animals and plants under U.N. targets for 2020 that would also save the world economy billions of dollars a year, U.N. experts say.

Only a few countries -- including France and Guatemala -- have so far adopted new national plans to tackle threats such as pollution or climate change in line with a sweeping pact agreed in Japan in 2010. "There is a lot more to do," David Cooper, head of the scientific, technical and technological unit at the Secretariat of the U.N. Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in Montreal, told Reuters by phone.

Almost 200 nations will meet in Hyderabad, India, from October 8-19 to review progress towards goals to protect life on earth that U.N. reports say is suffering the biggest wave of extinctions since the dinosaurs vanished 65 million years ago. Governments agreed in 2010 to 20 targets including phasing out damaging subsidies and expanding protected areas, for instance to save valuable coral reefs that are nurseries for fish or to slow deforestation from the Congo to the Amazon.

Swift action needed to save world's declining fisheries-study
By Alister Doyle
28 September 2012


A fisherman throws his net at the Ipanema beach in Rio de Janeiro September 26, 2012. REUTERS/Pilar Olivares

(Reuters) - Swift action is required to save many of the world's fisheries that are declining faster than expected, a study in a leading scientific journal shows.

A recovery of fisheries could increase worldwide landings by up to 40 percent, helping to feed a global human population that is forecast to rise from 7 billion to 9 billion between now and 2050, according to the report in Friday's edition of Science.

Coastal fisheries and sharks are among those hardest hit by overfishing, while flounder, herring and sardine are suffering less, the scientists wrote in the journal run by the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

India leopards at risk of decimation: study
28 September 2012


An Indian leopard sits inside its enclosure at the Kamla Nehru Zoological Gardens in Ahmedabad.

AFP - India's leopard population is at risk of being decimated as a result of rampant poaching fuelled by a thriving black market for its skins, a study by animal conservationists said on Friday.

The report by a network of wildlife groups known as TRAFFIC said at least four leopards have been killed every week by poachers in India in the last decade, and their plight mirrored that of the tiger, which is now an endangered species.

Organised crime moving into logging: UN, Interpol
27 September 2012


An Indonesian customs officer inspects illegal logs placed inside containers at Jakarta's Tanjung Priok port in 2011.

AFP - Organised crime is now a big player in illegal logging, which accounts for up to 30 percent of all wood traded globally, the UN and Interpol warned on Thursday.

In the mid-2000s, some tropical countries reported a fall in illicit forest clearance, but this may well have been a mirage, they said. In fact, criminals laundered profits into tree plantation companies. They used these as fronts for driving corridors into old forests, plundering trees which they frequently passed off as wood from sustainable sources.

"In many cases a tripling in the volumes of timber 'originating' from plantations in the five years following the law enforcement crackdown on illegal logging has come partly from cover operations to criminals to legalise and launder illegal logging operations," said the report, Green Carbon: Black Trade.

Ecuador invokes treaty in Assange row with Britain
27 September 2012


Wikileaks founder Julian Assange addresses the media from the balcony of the Ecuadorian Embassy in London in August 2012.

AFP - Ecuador said that Britain could grant safe passage to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange under an extradition treaty between the two countries dating back to the 19th century.

The treaty -- signed September 20, 1840 -- makes it possible to "demonstrate to the United Kingdom that it can deliver safe passage," Ecuador's foreign minister, Ricardo Patino, told South American broadcaster Telesur. The text "foresees that no one shall be extradited if the offense in question is not political in nature," Patino added.

Bradley Manning lawyer alleges slow trial is 'an absolute mockery' of rights
by Ed Pilkington
Thursday 27 September 2012


Should Manning's trial kick off on 4 February, as it is currently scheduled to do, he will have been held for 983 days. Photograph: Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images

Civilian lawyer calls for dismissal of all charges against soldier, who has been in held military custody for more than two years

By the time Bradley Manning goes to trial next February for the alleged transmission of state secrets to WikiLeaks he will has spent as much time in military custody as it would take to build the Empire State building twice over, his lawyer has protested.

David Coombs, Manning's civilian lawyer, has filed a motion with the army court hearing the US soldier's court martial calling for all charges against him to be dismissed on grounds that his right to a speedy trial have been violated. The US government has been so lethargic in pursuing the case, Coombs argues, that it has made "an absolute mockery of [Manning's] fundamental right".

Plastic debris reaches Southern Ocean, previously thought to be pristine
by Zoe Holman
Thursday 27 September 2012


The Southern Ocean. Researchers found plastic fragments there at a rate comparable to the global average. Photograph: Peter Barritt/Alamy

Researchers on 70,000-mile voyage to investigate climate change say effect of humans is now 'truly planetary'

The first traces of plastic debris have been found in what was thought to be the pristine environment of the Southern Ocean, according to a study released in London by the French scientific research vessel Tara.

The finding comes following a two-and-a-half-year, 70,000-mile voyage by the schooner across the Atlantic, Pacific, Antarctic and Indian Oceans, to investigate marine ecosystems and biodiversity under climate change. "We had always assumed that this was a pristine environment, very little touched by human beings," said Chris Bowler, scientific co-ordinator of Tara Oceans. "The fact that we found these plastics is a sign that the reach of human beings is truly planetary in scale."