Six In The Morning

Forests fight back all over the world

Woodland density is going up after decades of decline, but concerns about deforestation remain. Andrew Marszal reports on the Great Reversal

Sunday, 5 June 2011

Forest density is increasing across much of the world after decades of decline, according to a new study by scientists from the United States and Europe. The change, which is being dubbed the Great Reversal by the authors, has important, has positive implications for carbon capture and climate change.

The research, carried out by teams from the University of Helsinki and New York’s Rockefeller University, shows that forests are thickening in 45 of 68 countries, which together account for 72 per cent of global forests.

South Africa fears new wave of violence against foreigners

Township killings and attacks on shops raise pressure on President Jacob Zuma to act

Tracy McVeigh

The Observer, Sunday 5 June 2011

Fears are rising that South Africa could face a new wave of xenophobic violence as mock eviction notices are issued to foreign traders in townships around Johannesburg, the scenes of bloody violence in May 2008.

In one settlement, Pakistani and Somali shopkeepers have temporarily closed and are staying indoors, some claiming the police ordered them to do so for their own safety. Last week, more than 50 Somali-owned shops in Port Elizabeth were attacked, burned and looted.

Portugal election: Vote amid bail-out austerity

Voters in Portugal are going to the polls to choose a new government which will implement a demanding 78bn euro ($116bn; £70bn) bail-out.

5 June 2011  

Opinion polls suggest the opposition centre-right Social Democrats (PSD) lead the governing Socialists, but not by enough to form a majority.

Analysts say the PSD may try to form a coalition with the third-ranked CDS.

All the main parties endorsed the bail-out, which requires tough austerity measures amid a faltering economy.

Ecuador threatens to tap Amazon oil fields

June 5, 2011

Ecuador will begin operating three oil fields in a pristine Amazon preserve unless the international community contributes $US100 million ($93.77 million) by December, President Rafael Correa has announced.

Ecuador’s government pledged in 2007 to leave the oil fields under the Yasuni biosphere reserve untapped for a decade if rich countries would contribute $US3.6 billion ($3.38 billion), which it estimated was half of what the country could earn from the oil.

Malawi’s ‘witches’ challenge colonial-era sorcery law



FELIX MPONDA LILONGWE, MALAWI – Jun 05 2011  

They accused the 82-year-old grandmother of casting a spell on him, and filed a criminal complaint of witchcraft, landing her in jail under a century-old law now under fire by both non-believers and self-proclaimed witches.

“How could I bewitch my own grandchild. For what?” said the soft-spoken woman.

She and two elderly friends were convicted and sentenced to $33 fines each, a steep sum for women who — like 62% of Malawians — live on less than $2 a day. When they could not pay, they were jailed.

U.S. effort to boost anti-terrorism technology criticized

The Safety Act of 2002 is considered a laudable effort to encourage development of technology to fight terrorism. But analysts and security-tech companies say the government has been clumsy in making the initiative work as intended.

By Julie Mianecki, Washington Bureau

Reporting from Washington– Craig Harvey likened applying for government certification of his company’s anti-terrorism technology to applying for a patent: It took hundreds of pages of technical writing and six months to complete.

Still, he said, the process was necessary – he just wished his company, NVision Solutions Inc., had heard of it earlier.

Harvey’s complaint echoed those of experts who say the government does a good job of creating programs to work with the private sector in developing anti-terrorism technology – it just doesn’t do a good job of getting the word out about them.