TODAY: Lavrov keeps eagle eye on Georgia; Netanyahu's fears about Russian rogue scientists; Chubais takes the fall for hydropower plant disaster.  Litvinenko widow despairs over apparent British moves towards rapprochement.  Luzhkov-Baturina to take Nemtsov to court. UN report pessimistic on Russia's demographic decline; Ban Ki-moon voices approval for ecological care.According to the Moscow Times, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov says that Russia will survey shipping in the Black Sea to monitor Georgian 'provocations' which are a 'serious concern'.  Jorg Himmelreich in the International Herald Tribune suggests that much analysis of last year's Georgia-Russia conflict has overlooked the crucial matter of President Bush's Georgia policy.  Spokesman Andrei Nesterenko says that he believes that the ratification of the Lisbon treaty would benefit ...

TODAY: Talks on Russia joining WTO require work; South Ossetia election sees Georgia tensions simmer; no 'begging' for Belarus; Moscow opposition march broken up by police; Russian dolls President Dmitry Medvedev and Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso have agreed on the need for a 'serious response' to North Korea and Moscow will apparently back sanctions.  The European Union, the United States and Russia will hold in-depth ministerial talks this week on the Kremlin's hopes to join the World Trade Organization.  According to Washington, 'a great deal of work remains, particularly by the Russian Federation, in order to take the accession process forward'. 'The statement itself is very unfortunate': UN Secretary-General Ban ...

TODAY: Diplomat accuses US of overplaying threat from Iran; what did Putin tell Bill Clinton?; Russia-Belarus tensions flare on loan; Amnesty slams human rights standards; reclaiming Soviet-confiscated art Russia will not object to a new UN Security Council resolution over North Korea but will continue to oppose sanctions.  According to the Guardian, senior diplomat Alexander Sternik has criticized the US for grossly exaggerating the nuclear threat posed by nations such as Iran.  The Moscow Times reports that at a private meeting in January, Prime Minister Putin offered assurances to ex-US President Bill Clinton that Medvedev is not his puppet and that the Kremlin and Washington would be able to come to an agreement on missile defense.  Poland is apparently pushing the US to ...

Three-quarters of the world consists of water, but growing populations, higher living standards, and global climate change have more than a few analysts worried that there still may not be enough to go around.

In fact, water shortages are erupting around the world, from San Diego to Riyadh.

Hundreds of farm workers and locals from all parts of California took to the streets last Thursday as part of a four-day march to protest federal cutbacks in water supplies.

“This is ground zero,” Mario Santoyo, an adviser to the California Latino Water Coalition, told the New York Times. “There’s a human tragedy going on here, and we need water.”

The state of California projected in March that, because of a drought in the state’s Central Valley, as many as 23,700 full-time workers would lose their jobs, and farmers would lose up to $477 million in revenue, The Times

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