Colombian Vice President says cocaine destroying rain forests
20 November 2008 - Colombia's Vice President said that Britain's middle classes, who recycle and haul shopping home in reusable cloth bags, should realize that they are destroying the rain forests by taking cocaine. The Colombian government says four square meters (4.8 sq. yards) of rain forest have to be cleared to produce a gram of cocaine -- and 2.2 million hectares (5.44 million acres) of Colombian tropical forest have been cut down to grow coca in the last twenty years. About 7.7 per cent of Britons used cocaine last year -- the highest rate in Europe and over double the rate ten years ago, according to statistics from the European Union and the British government. (more)

Hungry in Zimbabwe: `If you rest, you starve'
20 November 2008 - The scene in a remote village in Zimbabwe is apocalyptic: Children with fading hair (a sign of malnutrition), and adults in tatters, pick up single corn kernels spilled from trucks that ferry the harvest to market, or prod a stick into a termite mound to draw out insects for the family's evening meal. Running water is nonexistent and schools and hospitals have closed down, as have the village's morgue, so that it is impossible to know how many are dying. Meanwhile, the country is in political paralysis following disputed elections in March. A power-sharing deal signed two months ago has stalled over the allocation of Ministries between President Robert Mugabe's party and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change. (more)

Mistrust fuels intolerance in divided Kosovo
20 November 2008 - Ten year after a war between Serbian forces and separatist Albanian guerrillas killed 8,000-12,000 civilians, Kosovo remains a source of tension in the volatile Balkans, perhaps more so following its Albanian leaders' declaration of independence from Serbia on February 17. Most Serbs in Kosovo now live in protected enclaves, mostly in the north. Although Kosovo's population is dominated by largely secular Albanians of Muslim heritage, Serbs consider Kosovo the cradle of the Serbian Orthodox Church and nation. A Gallup poll of at least 1,000 people released this week found just 17 per cent of Kosovo Serbs said they could live in peace with Albanians, although 72 per cent of Kosovo Albanians said such relations were possible. (more)

Pakistan protests over US missile strikes
20 November 2008 - Pakistan summoned US Ambassador Anne Patterson on Thursday to protest over missile strikes launched by pilotless drone aircraft against militant targets in Pakistan. The protest came a day after a suspected US missile strike on Pakistani soil killed five militants. There have been at least 20 strikes in the last three months. Pakistan says the attacks violate its sovereignty, undermine efforts to win public support for the fight against militancy, and make it harder to justify the US alliance. Speaking in the National Assembly, Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani called the missile attacks 'intolerable' and voiced hope President-elect Barack Obama's government would show more restraint. (more)