News headlines in July 2009, page 4

With its long, dry summers, Lebanon's diminishing woodlands are devastated by wild fires every year - and this year is no exception.

Banks bailed out with U.S. taxpayer money, like Wells Fargo and U.S. Bancorp, are raking in money by charging 150 percent interest and more on short-term, payday loans to people with no savings, consumer advocates say.

Today, the population of New Orleans is still about 175,000 people fewer than it was before Hurricane Katrina hit four years ago next month. Along with concerns about jobs and housing costs, the city's vulnerability to flooding has weighed heavily on the minds of many evacuees, many of whom have not returned.

A poll of 19 nations released here Wednesday reveals that majorities in most countries believe climate change should be a high priority for their governments, but relatively few thought that their leaders were doing enough about the problem.

The discovery of the remains of two victims of the 1954-1989 dictatorship of Alfredo Stroessner in Paraguay has opened a new chapter in the investigation of human rights crimes committed by the regime.

Somalia, a perpetually violence-prone country described as one of the world's failed states, may go the way of Iraq.

The world has deteriorated to the point that the images from Blade Runner amaze us less and frighten us more because we know how close we are to living on a planet similar to the one shown in the film, writes Leonardo Padura Fuentes, a Cuban writer and journalist whose novels have been translated into a dozen languages.

China and the United States concluded two days of talks Tuesday with the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that the Obama administration is touting as evidence of both countries' commitment to battling climate change and proof of a strengthening bilateral relationship.

When the New Delhi High Court amended Article 377 of the Indian Penal Code, a colonial-era law which was used to criminalise consensual homosexual relationships, on Jul. 2, it was a 'life-changing moment for me,' says Lesley Esteves, a journalist and queer activist based in New Delhi.