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Walking through many places in the world to call for people to plant trees, protect the environment and on the occasion of this interview, telling of his exploits in Vietnam, Yuji Miyata shares with Earthwalker Paul Coleman on a visit to Patagonia some anecdotes from his chosen path in life as Japan’s “Johnny Appleseed”.

The US Agency for International Development will give US$50 million this year to finance Venezuelan opposition groups, according to US government documents released in Caracas. In an interview with Radio Nacional de Venezuela, analyst Eva Golinger said the documents prove that USAID plans to fund even political parties, to campaign for the September 28 congressional elections

Whilst tens of millions struggle to survive the flood devastation, 30% of Pakistan’s budget revenue will be sent abroad to foreign creditors for massive loans made to dictators years ago. Rescue efforts for tens of millions of people whose lives have been devastated could be crippled. Avaaz campaign is trying to persuaded creditor governments to drop debt.

The Argentine film “Cuestion de principios” (A Question of Principles) by Rodrigo Grande opens the 5th Latin American Cinema Festival in Sydney on Wednesday, which will screen over 60 movies in almost 20 days.
“Cuestion de principios” is inspired by the book of the same title by the late writer Roberto Fontanarrosa, who helped the filmmaker with the script.

President Barack Obama is preparing to officially declare the end of US combat operations in Iraq seven-and-a-half years after the US invasion. Barack Obama will make the announcement in a nationally televised speech tonight from the Oval Office. He gave a preview of his speech in his weekly radio address over the weekend.

“The present technological era has meant an impoverishment of the relationship of human beings with nature”. This is one of the conclusions of the report “Harmony with Nature” that United Nations General Secretary will present to the General Assembly as a Bolivian initiative, that counts with the sponsorship of other 61 countries.

In Pakistan, it has been a month since torrential monsoon rains triggered the country’s worst natural disaster on record. As many as 20 million people have been left homeless due to the massive flooding. UN officials say an estimated 72,000 children in flood-affected areas are at high risk of death because of severe malnutrition.

Kevin Rudd came in like a lion and went out without a bleat, but many Australians felt cheated. After all he was elected by the entire nation so what was the Labor Party thinking about when they chucked him out? Whatever those thoughts were, the result was a hung parliament and an electoral hangover with the populace seeing reality as a green tinted spectacle.

Federal authorities have launched an investigation into a fire set at the site of a future Islamic center and mosque in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, thirty-five miles outside of Nashville. The apparent arson destroyed an earth mover and damaged three other vehicles. The equipment was reportedly doused with gasoline and set on fire on Friday night or early Saturday morning.

Last month experts published a series of studies indicating that, contrary to previous conclusions, the animal populations are decreasing in the exclusion zone which surrounds the site where the former Soviet nuclear plant functioned, and that the effects of the radioactive contamination following the explosion have been “overwhelming”.