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Environmental groups hailed a decision this week by four of the world's largest meat producers to ban the purchase of cattle from newly deforested areas of Brazil's Amazon rain forest. Brazil has the world's largest cattle herd and is the world's largest beef exporter. It is also the fourth largest producer of greenhouse gas emissions.

E.ON, the German energy group, has effectively thrown in the towel on its plans to build a new coal-power station at Kingsnorth, UK, blaming the recession. Kingsnorth has been shrouded in controversy ever since inception, with protests over several years including a high-profile Climate Camp protest.

In Eastern India's Jharkand State, tensions are mounting between indigenous tribal communities and the Uranium Corporation of India Limited, or UCIL. Heavy security at a May public hearing on UCIL's planned expansion in the Jagoda region prevented many local activists and villagers from entering. But outside the hearing, activists from the Jharkhandi Organization Against Radiation (JOAR) argued their case for protecting their health and the environment from the horrific impacts of radioactive contaminated waste resulting from uranium mining.

In Eastern India's Jharkand State, tensions are mounting between Indigenous tribal communities and the Uranium Corporation of India Limited, or UCIL. Heavy security at a May public hearing in Jadugoda prevented many local activists and villagers from entering. But outside the hearing, activists from the Jharkhandi Organization Against Radiation (JOAR) argued their case for protecting their health and the environment from horrific impacts of radioactive contaminated waste resulting from uranium mining.

Tracing the chain of production of an E. Coli-contaminated hamburger made by Cargill, through interviews and government and corporate records obtained by The New York Times, shows why eating ground beef is still a gamble. Neither the system meant to make the meat safe, nor the meat itself, is what consumers have been led to believe.

Originally posted at http://markfloegel.org/

El hecho contrasta con la postura adoptada por Al Gore, quien rehusó participar en un seminario sobre Cambio Climático en Chile el 2007 si la minera impulsora del polémico proyecto Pascua Lama actuaba como sponsor. Organizaciones norteamericanas cuestionan la asistencia de la Presidencia y aseguran que esta va en dirección contraria a la línea de protección social impulsada por la mandataria.

The question at the heart of one of the biggest Supreme Court cases this year is simple: What constitutional rights should corporations have? The legal doctrine underlying this debate is known as "corporate personhood."

For most American troops, the only connection they have to the locals - whether soldiers in the Afghan army or villagers they're trying to secure - is through their interpreters. Yet the way the military uses translators is too often haphazard and sometimes dangerously negligent.

Originally posted on 9 September at http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/09/09-11

Can things get still worse in Washington?