Colombian journalist Hollman Morris phoned an international news agency and said in an agitated voice: 'I am being followed by the police.'

Although it is still in the process of being drafted, a 'code of responsible conduct' promoted by the Chilean government to regulate public and private investment in indigenous areas has already drawn resistance.

As the December deadline for reaching a global climate deal in Copenhagen approaches, China is claiming leadership - rallying emerging economies to defend their rights to development and strike bargaining positions with rich nations.

Representatives of the Rocinha slum and the Rio de Janeiro government have agreed to replace a high wall, intended to prevent this densely populated hillside neighbourhood from spilling into the forest, with ecological paths, parks and low walls.

Social organisations in South America are backing the struggle against opening up Peru’s Amazon jungle to mining and oil companies, which resulted in clashes in which at least nine indigenous people and 25 police officers died.

When they got out of bed one morning in April this year, the residents of Vi Thanh City here in southern Vietnam’s Mekong Delta were surprised to find that their water had become salty.

Despite North Korean charges of political hypocrisy by the United Nations, the Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution Friday tightening sanctions against the Pyongyang regime for its nuclear and missile development programmes.

When it comes to smoking, Indonesia remains the last paradise for a puff in Southeast Asia. Those addicted to cigarettes can openly light up in public places without worrying about tough anti-tobacco penalties found in the rest of the region.

A leading global environmental group has accused the United States of holding up UN climate negotiations.

Environmental legislators from the 13 countries with the largest greenhouse gas emissions have called for the creation of an international green fund to be included in the Copenhagen protocol on climate change. The fund would provide developing countries with financial and technical resources to create a carbon-free economy.