HALIFAX, Nova Scotia, Mar 5 (IPS) - Algonquin community leader Robert Lovelace had never been charged with an offence, but when a uranium company began prospecting for radioactive ore on unceded native land without engaging in consultation, he decided to take action, organising a non-violent blockade.

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Europe's top semiconductor maker, STMicroelectronics (STM.PA), said it has developed a portable chip to detect influenza viruses including bird flu in humans.

A civil but tense tone prevailed at today's Federal Communications Commission's hearing on how to address concerns that Comcast and other ISPs degrade P2P traffic.

Some well-heeled investors got a big jolt from Goldman Sachs this week: Goldman, the most celebrated bank on Wall Street, refused to let them withdraw money from investments that they had considered as safe as cash.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Banks in the United States have been quietly borrowing "massive amounts" from the U.S. Federal Reserve in recent weeks, using a new measure the Fed introduced two months ago to help ease the credit crunch, according to a report on the web site of The Financial Times.

Caracas, February 8, 2008 (venezuelanalysis.com) - Venezuela's Energy Minister, Rafael Ramirez, characterised a series of court orders obtained by Exxon Mobil Corp. in Britain, the Netherlands, and the Dutch Antilles, freezing up to $12 billion in assets of Venezuelan state oil firm PDVSA, as "judicial terrorism," in a statement today.

The Arctic ice caps and Antarctic glaciers are well-known barometers of global warming, but melting masses of ice in the Himalayas are in perhaps even more danger.

A Russian opposition activist was forced into a mental hospital in one of many signs of the Russian government's crackdown ahead of elections next month.

At least 72 have been killed in separate bomb attacks on popular pet markets in Baghdad, the deadliest bombings in Iraq since the US troops surge in the spring.

Company plans to raise prices 'substantially' on chicken, beef