Word: summits
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...This week's summit, however, was largely dominated by another issue high on Rudd's list of priorities: people smuggling. Indonesia has become a hub for asylum seekers from Sri Lanka and Afghanistan looking to make the perilous journey to Australia by boat. Twenty-three vessels, many piloted by Indonesian fishermen, have been intercepted in Australian waters this year, an increasing number of illegal arrivals that has become a fire-hot domestic issue that could hurt Rudd's popularity during an election year. Yudhoyono announced during his visit that people-smuggling would now be punishable with a five-year sentence...
Loud blasting began years ago. Massey and other large coal-producing companies like Patriot Coal, in St. Louis, employ a particularly destructive form of excavation called mountaintop mining, which exposes entire coal seams by blowing off a mountain's summit; used mostly in Appalachia, such mining produces 130 millions tons of coal in the region per year. It's less popular in other coal-rich spots such as Texas, where the coal is deeper underground and requires a different kind of mining to unearth. Coal companies say mountaintop mining is also cheaper than traditional mining: rather than burrowing under...
...good news is that at the upcoming CITES summit, nations will have the chance to once more put a stop to the elephant trade. CITES is the rare international treaty with real teeth - countries that decide to defy it can face serious trade sanctions. As the experts in this week's Science put it, "no 'one-off' ivory sales should be approved." They have the power to prevent another - and bloodier - ivory...
Popularly, China is a villain in climate change. Many people who attended last year's chaotic U.N. climate-change talks in Copenhagen - especially those who belonged to the U.S. delegation - singled out China as the main reason the summit nearly collapsed. Chinese diplomats fought hard against any form of emissions regulation, even though their country is now the world's No. 1 national carbon emitter, and will emit far more carbon in the future than any other. In Washington, opponents of carbon cap-and-trade also point to China, which is unlikely to take on a carbon...
...that failing - an obvious priority for this century - Europe has spent much of the past few months obsessing over how Washington views it. Obama has visited Europe six times since taking office, and made just one trip to China. But the U.S. President's decision to skip the Spain summit, and his failure to attend the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, has had Europe acting like a jilted lover. French press reported that Sarkozy was forced to console an upset Merkel ahead of the Wall ceremony by painting Obama as a distant being whose presence would...