http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/45411/story.htm

KOURIS DAM, Cyprus - A small pool of water at the bottom of Cyprus's
largest reservoir is shrinking by the day: without rain, the main source
of surface water for most of the island will dry up by the end of the
year.

The sun-baked earth in the empty pit at Kouris is a sign of the
unprecedented water crisis facing the Mediterranean island. As climate
change takes effect, authorities face the dilemma of how much to use
energy-intensive desalination to beat the shortage.
"It's bad. Very bad," says Vlassis Partassides, head of water
management at Cyprus's water development department. "If the drought
continues for a fourth year, the consequences will be very severe," he
told Reuters.

Reservoirs are less than 9 percent full and residents – accustomed to
treating water as a precious commodity – are braced for another dry
winter.

Cypriots' water bills come with graphs showing monthly consumption, and
authorities are swift to alert households to abnormal spikes in use.

http://www.pushjournal.org/NewsCent/Default.cfm?eid=ecsp&article=89345

HALTING population growth in developing countries should be part of a global strategy to reduce mankind's impact on the environment, according to an eminent expatriate Australian scientist.

Immediate past president of the Royal Society, Professor Lord Robert May said that, given the threat of climate change, a declining global population was ''a prerequisite'' if humanity was to achieve a sustainable ecological footprint in the future.

Addressing the Lowy Institute in Sydney last night, Lord May said a priority was educating and empowering women, ''particularly in those cultures where this is not currently the case''.

Lord May, a former chief scientific adviser to the British government who was made a companion of the Order of Australia in 1998, said this would be assisted by achieving universal primary school education and promoting gender equality.

The United Nations estimates 700 million women, or two thirds of all those married or in stable unions, use some method of contraception.

By RANDAL C. ARCHIBOLD
Published: November 21, 2007

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/21/us/21fence.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

LOS ANGELES, Nov. 20 — The Department of Homeland Security is ahead of schedule in building some 700 miles of fencing along the Mexican border, but some environmental groups, elected officials and local Indian tribes say too little attention is being paid to the environmental consequences of the barriers.

In the latest flash point, Homeland Security Department officials took possession of land last week in the Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge in southern Arizona by brokering a land swap with another federal agency, the Fish and Wildlife Service.

Opponents say the 12-to-15-foot-tall steel fence and its construction will disrupt the habitat of jaguars, pygmy owls and other sensitive fauna in the wildlife refuge, and encourage illegal immigrants to use more remote, ecologically delicate terrain.

The Inquirer (Monrovia)

21 November 2007
Posted to the web 21 November 2007

Monrovia

http://allafrica.com/stories/200711210510.html 

The Government of Liberia has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Diamond Institute of Israel geared towards fostering cooperation to develop Liberia's diamond sector.

The agreement was signed today in Tel-Aviv, Israel, by Liberia's Lands, Mines and Energy Minister, Dr. Eugene Shannon and Dr. Morti Gantz, President of the Israel's Diamond Institute. As a result of this, a conference is scheduled to be held in Tel-Aviv, Israel, from February 11th -12th, 2008, in which specific aspects of cooperation will be worked out.