• A report found that 12 months after a ban on smoking in bars in New Zealand, there were no downturn in bar sales, tourism or employment, contrary to predictions of serious economic consequences to the hospital industry following the ban.
• The Center for Biological Diversity recently filed a suit against the US interior department seeking critical habitat conservation to aid the recovery of the endangered Sierra Nevada bighorn sheep.
• 2005 has been the warmest year on record in the northern hemisphere and the second warmest year since the 1860s. Nine of the hottest years on record have been in the past decade.
• People living in the Arctic have filed a legal petition against the US government, saying its climate change policies violate human rights. The Inuit Circumpolar Conference claims the US failure to control emissions of greenhouse gases has damaged livelihoods in the Arctic.
• The International Monetary Fund has approved a US $4.8 billion plan to cancel the debts of 20 of the world's poorest countries. It is part of the multilateral debt relief initiative agreed upon last July.
• Close on the heels of last month's river contamination in China, more than 7,000 people in Renshou county had to go without water for six days after waste from a local pig farm flowed directly into the Tiaodeng river.
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