News headlines in March 2011, page 32

Eco-farming could double food production in entire regions within 10 years while mitigating climate change, according to a new U.N. report released Tuesday in Geneva.

Spain put the brakes on the use of clean energies to generate electricity, as the government approved an energy savings programme to cope with its large oil bill which affects its commitment to reduce non-renewable sources by 2020.

Multilateral lending institutions — like the governments they serve — are ostensibly committed to the values of transparency and accountability. But more often than not, insiders who blow the whistle on waste, fraud and abuse at institutions like the World Bank are retaliated against, not rewarded, and typically find themselves out of a job for daring to speak out about wrongdoing.

The combination of a leader in power for 42 years, underground political forces bursting on the scene with violence, fractured armed forces and a fast-developing civil war would appear to be a specifically Libyan phenomenon that is unlikely to expand to the rest of OPEC.

All countries, the small ones in particular, are having a hard time adapting to a shrinking world that is ever more globalised, interconnected, and interdependent. Given the infinite number of connections today, the traditional forms of production and distribution have changed. Transnational corporations control an important part of world trade and dictate the new regulations to which we have no choice but to adapt. To respond to these challenges, and as a inescapable response to globalisation, the world is organising itself into gigantic blocs, writes Jose Mujica, President of Uruguay.

On the occasion of the 100th celebration of International Women’s Day, the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) presented a surprising and alarming assessment of the situation of rural women, based on a comprehensive analysis of men and women farmers around the world.

Chevron, the second largest U.S. oil company, believes that to overturn the verdict ordering it to pay 9.5 billion dollars in reparations for environmental and public health damages in Ecuador's Amazon jungle, the best defence is a good offence.

Rebels will not pursue Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi over crimes they say he has committed if he steps down from his post by Friday, the head of the rebel National Libyan Council has said.

While Mexico is earning more revenue from oil exports, the cost of food imports has risen to the point where food security is threatened.

Timed to coincide with the 20th anniversary of the 1992 Rio de Janeiro Earth Summit, the Rio 2012 Summit hopes to recapture the optimism of that earlier era.