The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has activated an emergency finance mechanism to help countries hit by the financial crisis. IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Khan said the lending procedure would allow the IMF to react quickly to support countries facing funding problems.
Dolphins, small whales and manatees living in the waters off West Africa or islands in the mid-Atlantic Ocean will now receive greater protection after 15 countries signed an agreement under a United Nations-backed treaty that aims to conserve wildlife and habitats.
The British government has announced plans to partially nationalise the country's major banks, in a package using up to £50bn ($87.5bn) of taxpayers' money.
Conservationists working with Google Inc. have unveiled a tool that lets people view protected marine areas with the click of a mouse, a bid to harness the Internet's top search engine to raise awareness of endangered ocean habitats.
OPEC is consulting on whether to hold an emergency meeting on November 18 to discuss the impact of the global financial crisis on the oil market, Libya's top oil official said on Wednesday.
Increasing nature-based enterprises could simultaneously enhance incomes for the world's rural poor and increase their resilience to economic, social and environmental threats, according to a new United Nations-backed report launched Wednesday.
With no end in sight for the global financial and confidence crisis, plus the price of commodities falling, the US dollar is breaking new records in Chile having closed trading on Wednesday at 612 Chilean pesos.
The economy of the euro zone contracted 0.2% in the second quarter after growing 0.7% the previous quarter, according to the latest EU data, which confirmed earlier estimates.
Stocks fell sharply on Wednesday as co-ordinated global interest rate cuts by major central banks failed to dispel the gloom engulfing world markets. On Wall Street, the Dow Jones ended 189.01 points lower, or 2%, at 9,258.1 despite having risen in earlier trade.
The world's fishing fleets are losing billions of dollars each year through depleted stocks and poor management, according to a UN report. The World Bank and the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) calculate the losses at 50 billion US dollars per year.