IN BRIEF (Page 12)

BRAZIL

Deforestation rates plunge

Deforestation rates in the Amazon dropped 47 percent in August 2010 compared to the same period in 2009, according to new data from Brazil's National Institute for Space Research.

Satellite imagery analyzed by the Real Time Deforestation Detection System, which detects deforestation in near real time in areas larger than 25 hectares and guides government actions to slow deforestation before the affected areas suffer irreparable environmental damage, show that 265 sq km of forests were cleared in August 2010, against 498 sq km during the same month in 2009.

According to Environment Minister Izabella Teixeira, the reduction of deforestation over the past two years is the result of the coordinated efforts of the Ministry of the Environment, the Brazilian Institute of the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources, the Federal Police and various government agencies.

HONDURAS

Tropical Storm strengthens

Tropical Storm Paula, the 16th-named storm of the busy 2010 Atlantic hurricane season, spun along Honduras' Caribbean coast on Monday and took aim at Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula.

Paula was expected to strengthen into a hurricane on Tuesday, the US National Hurricane Center said. Weather forecasts showed it could hit Mexico's popular Caribbean resort of Cancun. Authorities in Honduras closed schools and warned of flooding in some villages as heavy rains reached the coast.

MEXICO CITY

Democracies in Americas fragile

Democracy has taken root in Latin America, but remains fragile three decades since coup-imposed military regimes were replaced by freely elected governments, a UN report warned on Tuesday.

It said drug violence, weak states with corrupt police and inefficient courts, and wealth concentrated in few hands threaten representative government across the region.

"There is a problem in the quality of our democracies," said UN Assistant Secretary-General Heraldo Munoz, director of the United Nations Development Program's regional bureau for Latin America, who helped oversee the report.

ISRAEL

Top officials doubt peace

An Israeli Cabinet minister said on Tuesday that top officials doubt a peace deal with the Palestinians can be reached soon even though the prime minister has committed to try to reach an agreement within a year.

The Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, which resumed last month after a breakdown of nearly two years, have already run aground over Israel's refusal to renew a moratorium on West Bank settlement construction.

UKRAINE

Bus hits train, killing 40

A crowded bus collided with a train in eastern Ukraine on Tuesday, killing 40 people and leaving 10 in critical condition, officials said.

The Interior Ministry said the accident occurred outside the town of Marhanets in the Dnipropetrovsk region after the bus attempted to cross the track, ignoring a siren that indicated an oncoming train.

Rescuers, medics and investigators are working at the scene of the crash. All the casualties were on the bus.

Reuters

China Daily

Associated Press

(China Daily 10/13/2010 page12)