International

"Negotiators from developing countries insist wealthy nations must help fund their move to sustainable development"

"This week the extent of Arctic sea ice dipped below the extent for 2007, according to the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC). As you may remember, the 2007 season holds the record for lowest Arctic sea-ice extent in recorded history."

"TOKYO — Japan is on the verge of returning to atomic power after a local mayor on Thursday gave his approval to restart a pair of reactors, idled in the wake of last year's nuclear accident.

The nuclear restart could come as soon as this weekend, Japanese media reported. It would mark a controversial victory for the central government, which has spent months arguing that Japan needs nuclear power to sustain its fragile economy.

"After five years of toil, a consortium of several hundred U.S. researchers has released a detailed census of the myriad bacteria, yeasts, viruses and amoebas that live, eat, excrete, reproduce and die in or on us."

"Described in two papers in Nature and a raft of reports in other journals, the data released Wednesday describe microbes of the skin, saliva, nostrils, guts and other areas of 242 adults in tiptop health.

"RIO de JANEIRO -- President Dilma Rousseff today opened Rio +20, the UN Conference on Sustainable Development, at Brazil's giant pavilion in Athletes Park opposite Riocentro, the main seat of the conference meetings."

"The wasteful practice of throwing away healthy and edible fish at sea will be ended in Europe, for the first time in four decades, in a partial victory for environmental campaigners who have viewed a discards ban as the key step to preserving fish stocks. But -- crucially -- the date when such a ban will come into force is still in question, raising fears that it may be implemented too late to save some species."

"Diesel engine fumes can cause lung cancer and belong in the same potentially deadly category as asbestos, arsenic and mustard gas, World Health Organisation (WHO) experts said on Tuesday."

"A new US-led study, featuring research by Tasmanian scientists, has concluded that warming ocean temperatures over the past 50 years are largely a man-made phenomenon."

"Whether or not fishermen should be permitted to throw away healthy fish at sea instead of selling them to consumers will come to a head at a crunch meeting of Europe's fisheries ministers on Tuesday."

"RIO de JANEIRO -- The Rio+20 Secretary-General said today that the absence of such world leaders as U.S. President Barack Obama, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and UK Prime Minister David Cameron will not undermine the sustainable development summit later this month."