Forces loyal to Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi are pounding targets in the western rebel stronghold of Misrata.
Medical authorities and rebels say the shelling on Friday had killed at least 10 people and left 40 wounded.
The attack by pro-Gadhafi forces come as NATO warplanes continue strikes over the capital, Tripoli.
The forces appear to be targeting several parts of the capital, but it was not immediately clear what was hit or whether there are casualties.
NATO has most often struck under the cover of darkness, but day-time assaults have become more common. Friday's raids followed a barrage on Thursday night.
Meanwhile, Libyan state television showed what it said was live video on Friday of a pro-Gadhafi rally in a Tripoli square. The video showed what appeared to be hundreds of people waving flags and chanting pro-government slogans.
Elsewhere, there are tentative attempts to resolve Libya's three-month-old political conflict.
Gadhafi's son said his father was willing to hold elections and step aside if he lost. But the offer was rejected by rebels and the United States.
Seif al-Islam Gadhafi told an Italian newspaper, Corriere della Sera, Thursday the vote could take place within three months and transparency could be guaranteed by international observers.
Opposition spokesman Abdel Hafiz Ghoga told al-Jazeera television the time for elections had passed "because our forces are at the outskirts of Tripoli." A U.S. State Department official also dismissed the idea.
Italy said it will host a meeting of up to 300 Libyan tribal leaders to help promote reconciliation. Some information for this report provided by AP, AFP and Reuters.
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Police in eastern India say security forces have defused a powerful bomb found on a train carrying about 1,000 passengers.
Senior police officials in Assam state said security forces were conducting a routine search when they found an unattended small, but heavy, bag before the train arrived in Guwahati. They discovered what they called a "neatly concealed" bomb.
Authorities said it was an improvised explosive device weighing about five kilograms and fitted with a timer. They called it a "powerful bomb."
Officials evacuated passengers before bomb disposal experts disabled the device.
No one immediately claimed responsibility for Friday's attempted bombing, but officials say they suspect a local militant group opposed to peace talks with the government was involved.
Some information for this report was provided by AFP.
Thailand's royalist Yellow Shirts have protested outside the United Nations Cultural agency in Bangkok, urging it to withdraw world heritage status for a Cambodian temple near disputed territory. They also paraded through the Thai capital encouraging people not to vote in July 3 elections. The nationalist movement has stopped supporting the current government, saying it is too weak on the border dispute.
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At least 2,000 yellow-dressed protesters demonstrated Friday outside of the Bangkok office of the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
They nationalists want UNESCO's World Heritage Committee, which meets Sunday in Paris, to de-list a temple in Cambodia near disputed territory.
The 900-year-old Khmer Hindu temple called Preah Vihear in Cambodia and Phra Viharn in Thailand was declared a world heritage site in 2008.
The listing sparked nationalist fervor on both sides and sporadic and deadly clashes between Thai and Cambodian soldiers.
Protester Vipida Thaisawat says Cambodia is using the world heritage status to encroach on Thai land. Like some other nationalists, she claims the temple is in Thai territory.
Video of Protest by Pros Laput
"Actually, [getting the] temple back [to Thailand] or not is not the point," Vipida noted. "But, the point right now is they [Cambodia] want the land around Phra Viharn to register as a world heritage [under Cambodia]. And, we can't let that happen."
Cambodia has proposed a joint management plan for the temple complex, which the World Heritage Committee is reviewing and may decide on next week.
Thailand has urged the plan be delayed until a decision is reached on the land surrounding the temple, which both sides claim.
Cambodia last month asked the International Court of Justice in The Hague to rule on the disputed 4.6-square-kilometer area around the temple.
The ICJ ruled in 1962 that the temple itself is in Cambodia, but made no decision on the surrounding land. The court's ruling is expected sometime early next year.
The Yellow Shirts paraded Friday from the UNESCO office through Bangkok, directing most of their anger at Thai politicians.
They urged Thai people not to vote in a July 3 election, saying none of the parties have Thailand's true interests at heart, including the ruling Democrats they once supported.
The Yellow Shirts say the government has been weak in the border dispute with Cambodia and are demanding it stop cooperating with UNESCO and Phnom Penh.
The Thai government has waffled on whether it wants the withdrawal of the temple's World Heritage status, but has also dismissed the Yellow Shirt demands.
Meanwhile, the border remains tense with both militaries on alert. Clashes between the two sides killed at least 10 people in February. Another 18 died in fighting in April near another ancient temple complex about 150 kilometers farther west.
Each side blamed the other for starting the fight.
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Sudanese parties have opened final negotiations in Addis Ababa aimed at resolving several difficult and potentially divisive issues that need to be settled by the South's July 9 independence day. The negotiators were advised they must keep working until a deal is reached.
With just over three weeks until the birth of a new nation, north and south Sudan face a daunting array of potentially explosive questions. Among them, how to divide revenue from oil to be produced in the newly-independent south, and sensitive issues about who will be a citizen of which country.
Preliminary talks have been described as contentious, with the two sides far apart.
As they sat down together Friday for a final push for agreement, the chief mediator, former South African president Thabo Mbeki told the assembled negotiating teams that failure would be unacceptable. Flanked by chief negotiators Idriss Abdul-Gadir of the north and Pagan Amoum of the south, Mbeki said ground rules for the talks are that no one leaves until an agreement is ready for signature.
MBEKI: "There are still quite a few matters that need to be decided upon and our co-leaders here to my extreme left and my extreme right have said to me that I must say to the meeting, We shall sit here until we agree on all outstanding matters and that both delegations are indeed committed to do that. Am I right?" PAGAN: "Yes, you are right" MBEKI: "Am I right?" ABDUL-GADIR: "You are right" MBEKI: "You see that. They have confirmed that I am right."
The talks on citizenship and financial issues are among final details to be wrapped up under terms of the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement that ended decades of civil war in Sudan. Mbeki stressed to negotiators that their efforts are critical in determining whether the two neighbors begin their bilateral relationship at peace or in a state of hostility.
"We continue on the basis we have used throughout, which is of two viable states and continuing the relationship between states that is of benefit to the peoples of both states," he said. "The concept has been challenged somewhat but none of us has departed because we're all conscious that in the end we have two states who are neighbors, and they can't avoid being neighbors, and its better that they be good neighbors than bad neighbors."
Mbeki suggested the knotty question of citizenship might be resolved by establishing a soft border, allowing residents of the region, many of whom are northern-allied nomads, to move freely.
"We've discussed about a soft-border and therefore permitting for continuing interaction of Sudanese people across that border so separation does not create a wall between the two of them which obviously would have negative impact on lives of people on both sides of that border," he said.
Negotiators speaking to VOA Friday said the two sides are at a standoff on the critical issue of sharing oil revenues. The south was said to be insisting on a straight commercial relationship, with the north threatening to close the oil pipeline to Port Sudan unless they are given a share of the proceeds.
The financial and citizenship talks are being held parallel to separate talks on two other tracks, one on a cease-fire to end more than a week of deadly clashes in South Kordofan state, and another on the future of Abyei. Mediators say both tracks appear to be progressing satisfactorily.
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As the world marks UN Refugee Day on June 20, the number of people escaping violence across the Arab world is on the rise. Pro-democracy uprisings are being brutally suppressed in places like Libya and Syria, forcing tens of thousands of people to flee for an unknown future. Many of the refugees have little hope of ever returning to the place they once called home.
The Yayladagi refugee camp near Turkey's border with Syria is housed in the ruins of a former tobacco factory. There are around 3,500 refugees living here; more families are arriving by the day.
Its occupants fled in terror, leaving their homes and the land where they belong.
They are part of a wave of Syrians escaping the government crackdown on pro-democracy protests; the latest refugees of the Arab Spring.
June 20 is UN World Refugee Day. The thousands of people uprooted by the uprising and conflict across the Arab World make this year especially poignant, says Mans Nyberg of the United Nations' Refugee Agency (UNHCR).
"It's basically the last desperate move you make when you don't have any other option," said Nyberg. "When your home is burning, you have soldiers attacking your town, you just have to leave."
A sandstorm is brewing at the Shousha refugee camp on Tunisia's border with Libya.
Hundreds of thousands of refugees have passed through here since the Libyan conflict began in February, mainly expatriate workers from Africa.
Violence in the camp between different nationalities has escalated in recent weeks. Scores of refugees were killed when parts of the camp were set on fire.
"Ten days ago we lost four of our brothers," said Shishay Tesfay, an Eritrean refugee. "They were burned in one tent. They couldn't escape because the tent is very flammable and it doesn't give you time. It just burns and is destroyed within five minutes."
For around 3500 of the Shousha camp refugees - people from countries like Eritrea, Somalia and Sudan - there is nowhere else to go. It's too dangerous to go back to their home countries, and too dangerous in Libya.
"Everybody can see the picture of Libya," added Eritrean refugee Shishay Tesfay. "It's like a civil war. And Libyan people don't like African people, they think they are not Africa. And if I go back to Libya, it would be silly, a crazy thing."
The UN estimates there are 7 million refugees around the world like Shishay who have nowhere safe to return.
"The biggest problem today is so-called protracted refugee situations where people have been living as refugees for decades, for generations and there is no solution in sight for them," Nyberg added.
For tens of thousands of people fleeing Libya the promise of a new life in Europe can be bought for around $1500, the average price of a boat passage across the Mediterranean.
The majority arrive here on the Italian island of Lampedusa. Mahrouf is a Bangladeshi migrant worker who was living in Tripoli.
"There is too much fighting all the time, the government and the rebels are at war," said Mahrouf. "People were dying all the time. So I came here to Italy. It took 5 days on the boat. We were all very lucky - the ship smashed on the rocks when we arrived here."
Several hundred refugees and migrants are thought have drowned in the past few months escaping Libya, trying to find a better life.
The UN estimates that there are 43 million uprooted people on earth. They say the only long-term solution is an end to the conflicts that force people to flee their homes, for an unknown future.
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The U.N. Security Council has endorsed Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon for a second five-year term as U.N. chief. The South Korean diplomat faces no other candidates and is likely to sail to reappointment in the U.N. General Assembly next week.
The U.N.'s most powerful organ held closed door consultations on Ban's reappointment Thursday and then endorsed his second term Friday by acclamation in another private meeting. Had any of the five permanent members of the council vetoed recommending Ban's reappointment he would not have been eligible for another term.
"The Security Council, having considered the question of the recommendation for the appointment of the secretary-general of the United Nations, recommends to the General Assembly that Mr. Ban Ki-moon be appointed secretary-general of the United Nations for a second term of office from 1 January 2012 to 31 December 2016," he said.
Speaking from the capital of Brazil, where he is on a Latin American tour, Ban said he was "deeply honored" by the Security Council's vote.
On Tuesday, the 192-member General Assembly is expected to reconfirm Ban in a resolution also to be adopted by acclamation.
Under the U.N. Charter, the post of secretary-general is rotated regionally and is currently held by Asia.
Ban, now 67, moved from being South Korea's foreign minister to U.N. chief in January 2007. During his tenure he has made climate change, disarmament, gender inequality, and peace and security among his top priorities.
He has been a near-constant traveler, personally extending U.N. and international support to countries in crises from natural disasters to armed conflict.
Ban's critics say he has not been as outspoken as he should be on issues such as human rights and complain that his "quiet diplomacy" has failed in reigning in the world's dictators and despots.
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The Obama administration is continuing an investigation into the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms - known as the ATF - for allegedly allowing guns to be smuggled into Mexico after they had been purchased in the United States by people who were suspected of criminal activity. The allegations have fueled anger and mistrust on both sides of the border.
In testimony earlier this week before the US House of Representatives Oversight and Government Reform Committee, ATF agent John Dodson told how he was ordered by supervisors to allow guns purchased by so-called "straw purchasers" to pass on to others. He said ATF surveillance teams watched as the alleged straw purchasers re-sold the guns to others, but, he said, they were not allowed to move in and make arrests.
"I had no question that the individuals we were watching were acting as straw purchasers and that the weapons they purchased would be trafficked to Mexico and/or other locales along the southwest border or other places in the United States and that ultimately these firearms would be used in a violent crime," said Dodson.
The incidents described by Dodson and other agents took place under an operation that the agency had dubbed "Fast and Furious" and was part of a Justice Department effort to track guns to powerful drug lords and other criminal leaders who could then be targeted for arrest. Although the idea may have been to pass over smaller fish, like the straw purchasers, in favor of capturing bigger fish, the operation ended up allowing as many as 1,700 firearms to be trafficked to criminals both in the United States and Mexico.
At least 195 of the weapons were later traced to Mexico, where a violent drug war has claimed around 40,000 lives in the past five years. Two weapons linked to the "Fast and Furious"operation were found on the scene where U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was murdered near Nogales, Arizona, in December of last year.
Republican Senator Charles Grassley condemned the ATF operation as counter to the mission the agency was established to carry out.
"ATF is supposed to stop criminals from trafficking guns to Mexican drug cartels or, I guess, any place else; instead the ATF made it easier for alleged cartel middlemen to get weapons from U.S. gun dealers," said Grassley.
Senator Grassley and others on the committee have complained that the ATF and Justice Department have provided little information about the gun-tracing operation, how it was conducted and who supervised it.
U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder has ordered the Justice Department Inspector General to investigate the allegation. He recently told reporters that such operations are difficult to carry out because guns can be purchased legally in the United States and federal agents need to make sure illegal transactions are involved before making an arrest.
"Now, whether there should be guns allowed to travel or let them run, whatever the phrase is, is something we have to look at and examine and that is one of the reasons I have asked the Inspector General to look at the facts and see exactly what happened and see if what happened was appropriate," said Holder.
Among the people with an intense interest in the case are family members of Agent Terry, who are seeking answers as to why guns allegedly purchased for illegal purposes were allowed to pass on to criminals who may have used them to kill the Border Patrol agent.
Many Mexicans also demand explanations. Since the revelations about the ATF operations first came out in news reports three months ago, Mexican commentators and lawmakers have thoroughly condemned the "Fast and Furious" operations as an abuse of Mexico by the United States.
Mexican Senator Yeidckol Polevnsky of the leftist Party of the Democratic Revolution condemned it as a violation of international accords.
She said the U.S. operation violated a 1989 bilateral agreement between the United States and Mexico to cooperate in the fight against drug trafficking, as well as various other international agreements.
Even members of the ruling National Action Party, or PAN, have spoken out against the United States on this matter. PAN Senator Ricardo Garcia Cervantes called it a clear violation of Mexico's sovereignty.
He said this operation was not just an offense against national sovereignty, but a violation of Mexico's rule of law that had caused the death of Mexican citizens.
Mexican President Felipe Calderon began a national effort to stop drug trafficking and gain control over powerful criminal gangs shortly after he took office in December, 2006. In the years since then, he often has complained about guns being used by criminals in Mexico that have been traced back to gun shops in Houston, Phoenix and other US cities. U.S. Customs officials began an operation at border crossings two years ago to check vehicles traveling into Mexico for guns.
U..S government officials say little about the ATF "Fast and Furious" operations can be made public at this time because it might compromise criminal investigations and prosecutions that are now underway.
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A $1 trillion gas deal of the century was to be signed Friday in St. Petersburg, Russia.
Chinese President Hu Jintao, on a visit this day to St. Petersburg said that China and Russia set a goal of increasing trade fourfold during this decade.
As Russian President Dmitry Medvedev nodded approvingly, Hu told an international gathering of corporate executives that the two leaders have set a goal of $200 billion in bilateral trade by 2020.
Medvedev also spoke glowingly of the growing economic partnership between the two neighbors.
Last year, China displaced Germany as Russia's largest trading partner. Twenty years after borders opened following the collapse of the Soviet Union, 3 million people from China and Russia now visit each other's country each year.
Setting a bold trade goal served to distract attention from their failure to sign a massive gas deal. For one month, the leaders' aides had been predicting that Hu would sign the deal during his visit to Russia.
Asia analyst Bobo Lo said, "I was pretty surprised that they didn't come up with some kind of face-saving gas agreement in time for Hu Jintao's visit."
In the deal, China would buy as much as $1 trillion worth of Siberian gas from Russia over the next 30 years, starting in 2015. The amount of gas would be equal to almost half the gas that Russia currently sells every year to Europe.
In a last-minute sales effort on Thursday night, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, often considered Russia's top negotiator, took the Chinese president on a personal tour of Gazprom, the Russian state gas company.
Talks started 10 years ago. The sticking point remains price.
China is developing shale gas at home, is buying pipeline gas from Turkmenistan and is importing liquefied natural gas from Australia.
Russia knows that Chinese gas consumption may grow to match all of Europe's consumption by 2035. China will have no choice, the Russians say, but to turn to Siberia.
On the standoff, Lo said, "Both the Russians and the Chinese believe they are in a strong negotiating position."
China already has announced plans to increase coal imports from Russia and to double its oil imports from Russia.
Russia's excitement over the China's leader's visit reflects reversed roles of the two neighboring giants.
Fifty years ago, Russia was the top foreign aid donor to China. Now, China's economy is five times the size of Russia's. In a recent survey by Price Waterhouse Coopers, Russian business leaders listed China as their number-one growth area. For Chinese business leaders, Russia did not figure among the top 10.
The conference goal was for Medvedev to tell the world that Russia is open for business. Addressing a hall filled with 1,000 international participants, he declared, "We are not building state capitalism."
He went on to say, "My choice is different. Private entrepreneurship and private investors should reign in the Russian economy."
Medvedev cited liberalizing steps - speeding up the selling of state companies, cutting bureaucratic demands for visas and construction permits, and joining the World Trade Organization by the end of this year.
Markets, he said, are like parachutes - they only work when they are open.
This liberalizing rhetoric was music to the ears of his business audience. But Russia has presidential elections in March.
When the next economic forum rolls around, this time next year, no one knows who will be sitting in the Kremlin as president of Russia.
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The United Nations Human Rights Council has adopted an historic resolution that seeks to give gays and lesbians rights equal to those enjoyed by heterosexuals. The resolution passed by a narrow margin and over the vigorous objections of African and Arab countries.
After a long debate, the critical vote was taken.
The overflow audience burst out into applause before the president of the U.N. Human Rights Council, Sihasak Phuangketkeow, had a chance to announce the results of the vote. A giant video screen showed the final tally was 23 votes in favor of ending discrimination against gays, lesbians, bisexual and transsexual people, 19 against and three abstentions.
The Obama administration has been a staunch supporter of the resolution, and U.S. Ambassador Eileen Chamberlain Donahoe said the United States is thrilled by the outcome of what she called this simple but historic resolution.
"Today, we have taken an important step forward in our recognition that human rights are indeed universal," Donohoe said. "We recognize that violence against a person because of who they are is wrong. The right to choose, who we love and to share life with those we love is sacred. Further, we send the unequivocal message that each human being deserves equal protection from violence and discrimination. Today, we make history in the fight for basic fairness and equality."
But not all countries were as upbeat or thrilled with the outcome. Arab and African states strongly opposed the resolution. Pakistan's ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, Zamir Akram, speaking on behalf of the Organization of the Islamic Conference, said the OIC was seriously concerned that the Council was discussing controversial notions of sexual orientation.
He added there was no legal basis in any international human rights instruments for dealing with individual sexual interest and behavior at the United Nations.
The Nigerian representative, speaking on behalf of the African group, was particularly scathing and critical of South Africa, which was the main sponsor of the resolution. Ositadinna Anaedu accused South Africa of breaking ranks with the African region and siding with the West.
He said African countries oppose racism and discrimination, but quoting the Nigerian president he said individual and national rights are not a matter for international concern.
"Strongly rejects any attempts to undermine international human rights system by seeking to impose concepts by turning to social matters including private, individual conduct that fall outside the internationally agreed human rights legal work," Anaedu said. "Taking into account that such attempts constitute an expression of disregard for the universality of human rights."
Despite this criticism, South Africa remained resolute in its conviction that all people are equal and deserve equal rights.
The resolution states "no one should be subject to discrimination or violence due to sexual orientation or gender identity."
It expresses grave concerns at acts of violence and discrimination, in all regions of the world against gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender individuals. The resolution also commissions a study on discriminatory laws and violence against individuals based on their sexual orientation and gender identity.
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Farmed fish, if raised sustainably, can help feed the world, according to a report by the WorldFish Center, a private group that advocates sustainable fishing.
As overfishing continues to deplete ocean fish populations, farmed fish have stepped in to fill the gap. The report, presented at a conference in Thailand, finds the industry has grown at such a rapid pace that it now supplies nearly half the fish eaten on the planet.
It compares farming practices and fish species across 18 countries. WorldFish director general and report author Stephen Hall says it answers some basic questions "What works best? What's most efficient? Which things do we need to pay most attention to when we try and think about improving the environmental performance of a very important food production sector?"
Ninety-one percent of farmed fish come from Asia, with China alone accounting for more than 61 percent of that production. Hall says from country to country, and across a range of production systems and fish species, the environmental impact of aquaculture varies widely.
"And that tells us that that there are huge opportunities for the best to learn from the worst and reduce the environmental impact across the globe."
That impact can be considerable. Waste from poorly managed aquaculture ponds can pollute ground and coastal waters, and certain carnivorous species like salmon must be fed products made from other fish, like oil and meal - meaning continued pressure on wild fish populations.
While Asia dominates aquaculture production, fish farms are common across the globe as in this operation in Egypt. (Jamie Oliver)
The report finds that shrimp and prawn production methods in China had a greater impact on the environment than the methods used in Thailand or Vietnam. Hall notes that other marine species are more ecologically friendly.
"One of the real 'good guys' in this are the bivalves, the oysters and the mussels, which actually take up nutrients and actually remediate and improve the environment as one grows more of them."
While the report did not look at the impact of farmed fish on wild fish populations or on disease, it did find that when comparing the impact on climate change, land use and energy demand, aquaculture fared much better ecologically than livestock. Consider, says Hall, that it takes 61 kilograms of grain to produce one kilogram of beef protein, while the ratio for fish protein is only 13 to one.
"And so when we make these decisions on what we eat and how we manage our environment and the resources we use to produce our food, fish are an important part of that equation because they are in the animal source food area, one of the groups that is particularly attractive for developing further."
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Industry experts predict that farmed fish output will increase 50 percent from current levels by 2030.
In the United States, which currently imports 84 percent of its seafood and produces less than 2 percent of the world's cultivated fish - the Obama Administration has proposed new guidelines that would make it easier to set up fish farms in federal waters.
U.S. officials say expanding domestic aquaculture production will reduce pressure on wild ocean catch and cut the nation's seafood imports.
While many environmental groups have expressed wariness about the rapid expansion of fish farming, the global aquaculture assessment released this week suggests that fish farming done well can be ecologically benign. Sebastian Troeng is a vice president at Conservation International, a co-sponsor of the report. He says among its key recommendations are increased innovation in aquaculture production, and better regulations in the part of the world where the sector is big and growing very rapidly.
Troeng adds that careful compliance with environmental regulations is also essential in reducing adverse impacts as the industry grows. "So we can understand where there is going to be a push to increase production and then help guide that production so that it doesn't place unacceptable demands on the environment."
Troeng says the challenge is to get public officials, agencies, industry and communities to work together with a set of common goals that address world food needs while also protecting the environment.
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U.S. authorities say they found suspicious items inside the backpack of a man who was detained overnight near Defense Department headquarters.
A U.S. Park Police spokesman Sergeant David Schlosser told reporters Friday that the man was discovered inside Arlington National Cemetery, just outside Washington.
After interviewing him, the spokesman said police thought it appropriate to look for a vehicle. He said the man was initially "not very cooperative" in answering questions about his activities.
The spokesman said a car was found near the Pentagon, and that the local fire department sent a bomb disposal unit to investigate.
Federal Bureau of Investigation counterterrorism agent Brenda Heck said officials did not find anything suspicious inside the vehicle.
She said the man, who is in his 20s, was carrying a backpack that contained suspicious items, including a non-explosive, unknown material that will require further investigation. She said officials believe he was acting alone.
Officials closed major roads around the Pentagon during the investigation.
Some information for this report was provided by AP, AFP and Reuters.
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The purchase and sale of carbon credits are relatively new concepts in Africa, accounting for less than three percent of the $144 billion global carbon credit trade. The system is designed to reduce carbon emissions worldwide by allowing projects that that produce low carbon emissions to sell credits to projects that want to reduce their carbon emissions under the Kyoto Protocol. The carbon trade is starting to pick up in African countries such as Kenya, where a Swiss company is one of many participants.
Something new in western Kenya homesteads: a LifeStraw Family water filter, produced by the Swiss health-products company Vestergaard Frandsen.
Community workers are distributing them for free to 900,000 households.
Through its safe drinking water project, the company aims to turn a profit by selling carbon credits in the $144 billion global carbon market.
"What we are looking at is about two million tons of carbon emissions reduced per year by providing 90 percent of the families in the province with LifeStraw Family," explained Alison Ann Hill, concept development manager at Vestergaard Frandsen's U.S. office.
That calculation is based on the amount of firewood an average family uses to boil water to make it safe to drink.
Vestergaard Frandsen's LifeStraw Family water filter project is one of more than 60 projects in Africa registered under the Kyoto Protocol's Clean Development Mechanism, or CDM. Under the CDM, industrialized countries invest in projects that reduce greenhouse gas emissions in developing countries.
Projects receive one carbon credit for every metric ton of carbon dioxide that is prevented from entering the Earth's atmosphere. Carbon credits are then sold on the market to others who wish to reduce their carbon emissions under the Kyoto Protocol.
Critics of the global carbon market say the system encourages companies in industrialized countries to continue to pollute, yet meet emissions standards through the purchase of carbon credits.
They also say it is unfair that non-polluting projects in Africa and other developing areas are supporting polluters in developed nations.
But in African countries, carbon credits are the new engine for environmental conservation and economic growth, says Adriaan Tas, managing director of the Nairobi-based consultancy Carbon Africa Ltd.
"A big project like Lake Turkana Wind power -- we estimate that, per year, it will receive 7.5 million euros from the carbon market," Tas said. "If you start comparing these kind of numbers with donor aid -- ODA [Overseas Development Assistance] money -- you actually realize that the carbon markets are almost creating as much cash flow into developing countries as ODA."
Tas says African countries must decide whether they can develop economically using fossil-based fuels or the more environmentally-friendly renewable energies such as hydro, wind, and solar power.
He says projects starting up in countries such as Kenya that are not registered by the end of next year face a formidable obstacle, when some provisions associated with the Kyoto Protocol run out.
"One of the problems that we are facing at the moment is that the European Union has been very clear that, after 2012, they will only accept carbon credits coming from Least Developed Countries [LDC]," explained Tas. "Kenya for instance is not an LDC, South Africa, Ghana, Nigeria - so suddenly all those countries will not be able to benefit anymore if the European Union sticks to its position there."
The next U.N. climate change conference is due to be held in Durban at the end of this year.
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U. S. Assistant Secretary of State Philip Gordon has concluded a four-nation trip through the Balkans, where he expressed concern over ethnic tensions and unresolved war crimes. He also said the U.S. does not accept the partition of Kosovo, which declared independence from Serbia in 2008.
Gordon told reporters the United States does not support Serbian calls for Kosovo to be divided along ethnic lines.
Serbian officials said recently that the partition could end a long-running dispute over Kosovo's unilateral declaration of independence from Serbia.
But speaking in Kosovo, Gordon made clear that Washington opposes redrawing Kosovo's borders.
"We in the United States have been very clear about the issue of partition," he said. "We are are not contemplating it. We are against it. We don't think it would be practical. We don't think it would be in anyone's interest."
Gordon added that Kosovo's partition would have consequences affected by the Balkan wars of the 1990s.
"And just to be absolutely clear: A Balkans region based on drawing borders around every ethnic group, would be a recipe for disaster," said Gordon.
He spoke after talks with Kosovo's Prime Minister Hashim Thaci, who is facing international controversy.
Thaci was recently accused by an investigator of the Council of Europe of involvement in war crimes.
Investigator Dick Marty said the Kosovo Liberation Army 'KLA', led by Thaci, killed Serbian and Albanian civilian captives to sell their organs. The atrocities allegedly happened in the late 1990s when the independence seeking KLA fought against Serbia's forces.
Thaci, who has denied wrongdoing, said he supports an international investigation.
He said his government has "nothing to hide and it is in the interest of Kosovo that this process be concluded as soon as possible." Thaci adds that these are very serious allegations, but that he has "full confidence in international justice," including in the United Nations War Crimes Tribunal.
Gordon made clear that while Washington supports Kosovo, allegations of war crimes should be investigated by the European Union Rule of Law Mission in Kosovo, EULEX.
"War crimes anywhere are serious issues. And regardless who the victims are justice should be done," said Gordon.
Gordon's visit to Kosovo was part of his four-nation Balkan tour that ended Friday with a stop in Croatia, which has just received the green light from the European Commission to join the European Union in 2013.
He earlier visited Serbia, which this week hosted the first ever gathering there of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
Gordon began his visit Tuesday in Bosnia-Herzegovina, where he noticed that much work remains to be done in a region still reeling from Europe's worst bloodshed since World War II, following the break-up of Yugoslavia.
He expressed concern that Bosnia-Herzegovina, which is divided between a Muslim-Croat and Serbian entity, still has no national government eight months after the elections because of ethnic tensions.
Gordon said at a conference this could undermine the country's efforts to obtain international loans to overcome a major crisis, and to become a member of the European Union and NATO.
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Yemenis are taking to the streets across the country, with demonstrators renewing calls for President Ali Abdullah Saleh's removal from office and others voicing support for the embattled leader.
Thousands of anti-government protesters massed after midday prayers on Friday. Some chanted and waved the Yemeni flag.
Meanwhile, Yemen's state-run television says loyalists have gathered in the capital, Sana'a, where they have been waving banners and chanting pro-government slogans.
Saleh remains in Saudi Arabia, where he is recuperating from injuries sustained in a bomb attack on his presidential compound earlier this month.
The Reuters news agency and the Associated Press, quoting Yemeni officials, reported that Saleh plans to return "in days." But the French agency quotes an unnamed Saudi official as saying Saleh will not be coming back to Yemen.
Saleh's absence has come at a time when the country is battling both government dissent and attacks from militant groups.
On Thursday, armed militants renewed attacks against government buildings near the southern Yemeni town of Houta, which they had assaulted on Wednesday.
Residents said the attackers briefly took over a security headquarters and council offices in Masameer, which is close to Houta, before retreating.
Also Thursday, Yemen's Defense Ministry said two people were killed after "terrorists" fired mortar rounds in the city of Zinjibar, most of whose population has fled to the port of Aden. Militants seized Zinjibar and another southern city in May.
Yemeni authorities said they had arrested 10 suspected al-Qaida suspects who had infiltrated Aden from Abyan province. Abyan is an al-Qaida stronghold.
Some information for this report was provided by AP, AFP and Reuters.
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Government officials say Pakistani security forces have killed at least 11 militants during clashes in the country's northwest tribal region.
Friday's fighting in the Mamund area of the Bajaur tribal area also killed a local tribesman.
Security forces launched a search operation in the region one day after hundreds of militants reportedly crossed the border from Afghanistan and attacked a village in Bajaur. Five civilians were killed in Thursday's cross-border attack.
Pakistani forces have carried out a number of military operations against Taliban and al-Qaida-linked militants in Bajaur.
In Pakistan's southwest Friday, local tribesmen briefly blocked NATO supplies and other traffic on a highway near the Chaman border crossing in Baluchistan province.
Officials say the tribesmen were protesting an incident the day before, in which Afghan forces fired on tribesmen at the border, wounding eight people.
Pakistani officials assured the tribesmen that their grievance would be brought up at the next meeting with Afghan and NATO troops.
Separately on Friday, the Pakistani military released a statement refuting media reports that intelligence officials may have tipped off terrorists about a raid on bomb-making factories. The military called the assertion "false and malicious."
The New York Times reported last week that U.S. intelligence officials have twice provided information to Pakistan about the specific locations of insurgent bomb-making factories, only to find the sites abandoned before Pakistani troops arrived.
The Pakistani military said Friday that security forces launched operations on four compounds suspected of being used to make bombs. Two were found to be factories and destroyed. The military says information on the other two compounds proved to be incorrect.
Some information for this report provided by AP.
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About a decade ago, scientists decoded the human genome, creating a gene-by-gene map of our DNA. In the decade since, genetic research has accelerated, but mostly it's stayed in the laboratory. Now, genetic science is taking its first steps into medical practice.
The Beery twins were born in 1996, and were diagnosed with cerebral palsy two years later. But as the children got older, their symptoms suggested a different diagnosis, a lack of the neurotransmitter dopamine. Around age six, the twins started taking a drug called L-dopa, which dramatically lessened their muscle spasms and other symptoms.
Fast forward a decade or so, and new symptoms appeared. To see what other factor might be at work, a team at the Baylor College of Medicine in Texas analyzed DNA samples from each of the twins, looking for a mutation that might be responsible.
Genetic tests then available didn't find anything unusual, however researcher Matthew Bainbridge says sequencing the entire genome of each of the twins later identified mutated copies of a gene called SPR (sepiapterin reductase).
"But mutations in SPR mean that, not only do you not make dopamine in the brain, you also don't make serotonin. And so these kids were getting this L-dopa treatment, which helped them with their lack of dopamine, but they weren't getting anything for their serotonin," he says.
A serotonin supplement was added to their medications, and within a month their mother says there were noticeable improvements in Alexis Beery's breathing and in her twin brother Noah's school work.
It seems almost every week there's a story about scientists who have identified a gene linked to some disease or another. Those discoveries are important, but Bainbridge says the Beery case represents something else.
"The difference is that we can actually do something, because we found these mutations and we knew that they were causing the disease. We could actually change the therapy the children got," Bainbridge says.
Whole-genome sequencing is still an expensive, specialized activity. But the cost is coming down, and Bainbridge says this individualized approach to diagnosis and treatment may move out of the research lab and into the doctor's office, at least for some conditions, in as little as two to three years.
"I think eventually it will be routine. I can imagine a future - and not too distantly, in five to ten years - where children will be born and their whole genome will be sequenced immediately."
World leaders and heads of state are always in the public eye. We watch them on TV and see their photos in newspapers and magazines.
But when New Yorker staff photographer Platon Antoniou - who uses just his first name professionally - embarked on a journey to capture images of world leaders, he wanted to discover the personalities behind the public faces. He also wanted to explore power.
When world leaders came to the United Nations for the General Assembly in September 2009, Platon felt it was the right moment to complete his project. He set up a studio on the floor of the General Assembly. His goal was to show each of these politicians up close, in a very personal way.
"Nick Clegg, deputy prime minister of England in the new British coalition government, he's in the book. I said to him, 'I want you to think of something that has nothing to do with business or politics, something that's deeply human.' And the most beautiful look came over his face," Platon says. "At the end of the photo shoot, he said to me, 'Do you know what I was thinking about when you took that picture?...I was imagining rubbing my baby's foot.'"
Sometimes, the moments are unsettling, such as when photographing Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe.
"Very chilling. He didn't say much. He was dressed perfectly in a very gentlemanly suit. His entourage was very suspicious, eyes were moving around their surroundings all the time," Platon recalls. "He had the strangest skin. It looked like it was really oily but it was actually very dry, but stretched so finely over his flesh. His eyes were just deep crystal irises of cyan blue.I remember he walked away after his sitting and another head of state came to sit for me and refused to sit on the same chair. So I said, 'What's wrong with this chair?' He said, 'I'm not sitting in this chair, there is blood on it.'"
Capturing Libya's Muammar Qaddafi on film was also unforgettable.
"I see this giant crowd marching towards me and, in the middle, is Qaddafi marching in a slow motion movement," Platon says. "And he had all this incredible regalia, all these robes, and his hat that tamed his wild black hair. And he was surrounded by female bodyguards dressed head to foot in dark green military clothing. It was a scene from a James Bond movie."
Also featured in "Portraits of Power" are President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran and President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela.
"I got eight seconds with Chavez. It was the shortest photo session of my life. And although he gave me such a little time, he gave me so much in terms of his personality and his spirit. I do believe I captured his power as a human being, not just political power."
In Platon's book, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas face each other on opposite pages.
"Netanyahu approached me and he's a very confident person. You feel a force of energy from him. He has very big charisma. He grabbed my hand and shook it strongly and he put his other hand on my shoulder and he said, 'Platon make me look good.' So it became a running joke between us. The irony is that I think he does look good in the picture. You can see in his eyes that he's actually talking to you saying, 'I will look good in this picture. I will look good,'" Platon says. "Abbas was very different. He seemed more fragile as if he was feeling the world on his shoulders. He seemed very humble and he seemed a very dignified person."
Platon tried to capture the essence of his subjects at a given moment. Leaders who have just risen to power, he notes, have a different feeling and look than what you see after they've been in office longer.
"Obama, for instance, it's not the obvious charismatic Obama that we all fell in love with during the campaign. It's the thinking Obama, the philosophical Obama."
Among the more than 100 heads of state Platon photographed for his book, only four are women.
"The women I photographed seemed to be more comfortable in their seat perhaps because the battle is harder to the top and they have a better sense of humility and dignity."
Platon's quest to explore power continues, with a twist.
"I think it's time for me to turn my lens onto the people who have been robbed of power, people who have shown great courage in the face of oppression, people like Aung San Su Kyi, who I recently photographed and got her on the cover of Time magazine," he says. "I just got back from photographing all the leaders of the Egyptian revolution: humble kids, from 22 year olds who were torture victims, to parents who - with their kids - were in Tahrir square, to old ladies whose sons were taken and killed by the secret police. These are all everyday people who are so brave and who are actually really changing the world around us."
Platon considers his book a sort of yearbook of those who are now running our world, and he offers it up to readers for their evaluation.
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Some women in Saudi Arabia are driving cars on Friday as part of a defiant response to the kingdom's traditional ban on women behind the wheel.
Many Saudi women pledged on social media Internet sites to take part in the protest. It may be the largest such mass action since November 1990, when women demonstrators were arrested.
Since demonstrations are banned in Saudi Arabia, women with drivers' licenses obtained in other countries were being encouraged to make individual protests.
Early in the day, some women made trips to the supermarket or just went for drives in Riyadh. Their husbands boasted about trips by posting messages on social media sites.
How widespread the protest might prove to be is open to question. Some women might be scared off by the experience of activist Manal al-Sherif, who was jailed for two weeks after going for a drive and posting video on the internet of the trip.
There is no written rule in Saudi Arabia barring women from driving, only fatwas, or religious edicts, stemming from a strict tradition of Islam called Wahhabism.
Clerics enforcing it claim that if women could legally drive, they would be free to leave home alone and could then interact with male strangers. The prohibition forces families to hire live-in drivers or rely on male relatives to drive.
Some information for this report was provided by AFP and Reuters.
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Chinese state media say the country will expand its offshore maritime patrol force within the next decade, as tensions increase between Beijing and its South China Sea neighbors over a set of islands said to hold vast reserves of natural resources.
The China Daily newspaper says the China Maritime Surveillance Forces will add 16 aircraft and 350 vessels by 2015, and boost its current 9,000-member personnel to 15,000 by 2020. The number of vessels will increase to 520 by 2020.
The surveillance force falls under State Oceanic Administration, which supervises China's coastline and territorial waters. The newspaper said the number of foreign intrusions into China's sea and air has increased in recent years, with intrusions from 1,303 foreign ships and 214 planes in 2010, compared to a combined 110 in 2007.
China is engaged in a tug of war between with the Philippines, Taiwan, Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei, all of whom have made claims on the islands.
Beijing has sent one of its largest naval patrol ships, the Haixun 31, on a two-week trip across the South China Sea to Singapore for an unprecedented port call.
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