International

The multi-billionaire Koch brothers have financed a big part of today's conservative surge in U.S. politics, and they have a penchant for secrecy. As a result the U.S. news media have reported their opposition to government regulation -- but not the fact that Koch companies have used bribes to win business in Africa, India, and the Middle East, and that they have "sold millions of dollars of petrochemical equipment to Iran, a country the U.S. identifies as a sponsor of global terrorism."

"ISLAMABAD -- Environmentalists are blaming climate change for the unprecedented massive monsoon rains in Pakistan, which so far this year have affected eight million people, claiming 350 lives and damaging 1.3 million homes."

"Five prefectures' nuclear burden a hot potato no one wants to catch."

"The United States is pressing China and other Asia Pacific economies to agree at a leaders meeting in November to reduce tariffs and other barriers to trade in environmental goods like wind turbines and solar panels, a U.S. official said on Monday."

"The United States secretly sought Japan's support in 1972 to enable it to dump decommissioned nuclear reactors into the world's oceans under the London Convention, an international treaty being drawn up at the time."

A complex of causes -- including global warming -- may be making worse the threat of cholera outbreaks.

"Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on Thursday predicted Arctic shipping routes along Russia's northern coast would soon rival the Suez Canal as a quicker trade link from Europe to Asia."

"VIENNA, Austria -- Russia has decided to extend the life of a controversial generation of nuclear reactors like the one that catastrophically exploded at Chernobyl in 1986, the head of Russia's state-owned nuclear monopoly said."

A deadly typhoon crossed Japan, causing widespread death and damage, but authorities said it caused little significant increase in release of radiation from the stricken Fukushima nuclear plant.

"Leaked World Bank documents propose that rich countries should eliminate the $50bn a year they give in fossil fuel subsidies, in order to financially help poor countries address climate change.

The documents, due to be presented to the G20 finance ministers in November, also suggest that countries redirect "climate aid" money already pledged, towards the propping up ailing carbon markets.