United States of America

If you wanted to get large numbers of people actively engaged in helping to solve global warming, how might you go about it? For years, the main approach in the environmental movement has been to sound the alarm bell and implore people to consume less, switch to green products, recycle, and speak up to companies and politicians. It hasn’t always been an easy sell. However, if the approach of a promising Oakland-based start-up takes hold, there may be another line of action that could become available to ordinary people_ directly financing renewable energy.

WASHINGTON, CMC - The United States Department of State says it has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Belize to protect the country’s cultural heritage. It said the MOU for five years “demonstrates a commitment by both governments to staunch the pillage and illicit trafficking of Belize’s archaeological heritage of African, indigenous Maya, Spanish, and British influences”.

WASHINGTON, DC, USA (CMC) — A new World Bank study says a rise in sea levels by a metre from climate change could destroy more than 60 per cent of the Caribbean and the developing world's coastal wetlands currently found at one metre or less elevation.
The study says this could lead to economic losses of about US$630 million annually.
The World Bank analysis considered a variety of types of coastal wetlands at risk in 76 countries and territories, using a number of databases and satellite maps.

NEW YORK, USA (CMC) — The Council of the City of New York has passed a bill that will prohibit the New York Police Department (NYPD) from turning over Caribbean and other immigrants charged with low-level crimes to US federal authorities.
"When your fingerprints are taken at arrest, you're charged. You're not guilty," said Council Speaker Christine Quinn, following the passage of the bill by a vote of 40-7.

WASHINGTON, CMC - A new World Bank study says a rise in sea levels by a meter from climate change could destroy more than 60 per cent of the Caribbean and the developing world’s coastal wetlands currently found at one meter or less elevation.
The study says this will lead to economic losses of about US$630 million annually.
The World Bank analysis considers a variety of types of coastal wetlands at risk in 76 countries and territories, using a number of databases and satellite maps.

WASHINGTON, CMC – A top United States Department of Homeland Security official in charge of deportations has stepped down in the aftermath of a flap over the release of Caribbean and other detainees.
Gary Mead’s departure comes after the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency on Monday released hundreds of immigrants from jails and detention centers across the country.

WASHINGTON, (Reuters) – Decorated Vietnam veteran Chuck Hagel was sworn in as U.S. defense secretary yesterday after a bruising Senate confirmation battle, promising to renew old U.S. alliances and forge new ones without attempting to “dictate” to the world. Addressing Pentagon employees shortly after a small, closed-door swearing-in ceremony, Hagel spoke optimistically, if vaguely, about global challenges ahead and the importance of American leadership abroad. “We can’t dictate to the world. But we must engage the world.

WASHINGTON, CMC - In a move clearly designed to save money, the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency says it has released a number of Caribbean and other immigrant detainees from jails and detention centers across the country. ICE said that the move comes as automatic US federal budget cuts loom on March 1.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The White House may soon propose the biggest change in US food aid since the programmes were created during the Cold War – donating cash for hunger relief instead of shipping American-grown food thousands of miles to global trouble spots, say farm groups and charities. Reformers have argued for years that cash donations, the method used by most nations, are more efficient and speedier. But food donation has been the favoured US approach since the Food for Peace programme was enacted in 1954.

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – Three dozen arms control and human rights groups have written to US President Barack Obama ahead of new arms-trade negotiations at the United Nations next month, urging him to back a tough treaty that would end loopholes in international weapons sales. Arms control campaigners say one person every minute dies worldwide as a result of armed violence and a convention is needed to prevent the unregulated and illicit flow of weapons into conflict zones and fueling wars and atrocities.