In the last three years, Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has often used his podium to talk to the nation about climate change. He has called it "the great moral and economic issue challenge of our time," comparing global warming skeptics to gamblers who "happily play with our children's future." It's not random that Australia's leader has been vocal on the issue: Despite being one of the more sparsely populated nations, Australia's 22 million inhabitants emit the ...

Ever since the "white lobsters" started washing up on Nicaragua's Caribbean shore a decade ago, life for some people on this isolated and impoverished coast has become remarkably more affluent and globalized, with new mansions, speedboats and lucrative businesses dealing in international trade. Indigenous communities once neglected and marginalized by the state now have to option to self-finance their own development. It looks at first glance like a rare Central American success story — but in ...

Violent protests rocked the southern Afghanistan city of Kandahar on Saturday as more than 2,000 people marched against the burning of a Koran by a radical Christian preacher in Gainesville, Fla., two weeks ago. The demonstration left eight dead and 61 injured, Afghan media reported, as protesters set local businesses and cars ablaze. Saturday's events marked the second aggressive protest in Afghanistan in as many days. The first demonstration, on Friday, turned violent when hundreds of men ...

Ever wonder how investment bankers, a breed known in the past more for its social skills and golf handicaps than for its mathematical prowess, ever invented products like those crazily sophisticated, synthetic collateralized debt obligations that brought down the financial system? Well, they didn't. They hired rocket scientists to do that--a whole lot of them. In fact, Wall Street hires more math, engineering and science graduates than the semiconductor industry, Big Pharma or the telecommunications business. As one mathematician-turned-trader friend ...

Technologies that let employees work remotely have given rise to a growing phenomenon -- virtual internships. Businesses are realizing that commonplace Internet technologies like email, instant messaging -- which can also enable video chats -- and social media can be used to free interns from the confines of the office. For students, new graduates and career switchers looking to work in a different industry, working as an intern can be a valuable way of gaining work experience, and the flexibility ...

A series of photographic exhibitions have been organized in Europe and North America this autumn to highlight a campaign by Britain's Prince Charles to combat tropical deforestation. The photographs were taken by world-renowned environment photographer Daniel Beltra who was this year's winner of the Prince's Rainforest Project Award at the Sony World Photography Awards earlier this year. The images graphically depict the effects of climate change on the rainforests in the South America, Africa and Indonesia. Beltra compiled ...

With local economies flailing, communities across the U.S. are trying to drum up more action on Main Street. "Buy Local" campaigns are one way to go. But many towns--from Ojai, Calif., to Greensboro, N.C.--are considering going a step further and printing money that can only be spent locally. Issuing an alternative currency is perfectly legal, as long as it is treated as taxable income and consists of paper bills rather than coins. In the U.S., where local currencies ...

Ever since a slim majority outlawed gay marriage in California, opponents have waged national protests and petitions, urging the judicial system to reconsider the results of the Nov. 4 referendum. While the court weighs whether or not to get back into the fray, the civil unrest ignited by the ban shows no sign of abating. A national protest against Prop. 8 organized by JoinTheImpact.com is scheduled for today. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which opponents say ...

The Securities and Exchange Commission filed charges today against high-flying Houston-based financier R. Allen Stanford for orchestrating what it calls a multibillion-dollar investment fraud of "shocking magnitude." The complaint says Stanford perpetrated a "massive fraud based on false promises and fabricated historical return data to prey on investors." The alleged fraud centers on an $8 billion certificate-of-deposit program. In the past few weeks, Stanford, who operates Antigua-based Stanford International Bank, and his companies had fallen under ...