Theft of resources in Amazon cited

SAO PAULO - Brazil's intelligence service said yesterday that a six-month investigation of environmental and evangelical groups active in the nation's Amazon rain forest found evidence of genetic resources being stolen and of activities that endanger the ethnic identity of Indian communities. The Brazilian Intelligence Agency monitored the activities of 25 nongovernmental organizations during the last six months of 2007, according to a spokesman. The agency said it found evidence that NGOs had transferred indigenous knowledge of plants and animals to pharmaceutical companies and illegally extracted diamonds on indigenous land. The groups involved denied the allegations. (AP)

PARIS - President Nicolas Sarkozy's popularity slumped sharply in January, despite a whirl of activity aimed at halting a recent slide in support, according to an opinion poll released yesterday. The TNS Sofres poll for Le Figaro Magazine said Sarkozy's confidence rating dropped eight percentage points this month to just 41, the lowest level since he took office last May and down from a high of 65 registered in July. By contrast 55 percent of those questioned said they did not have faith in the president. The president's ratings started to fall last autumn and took a hammering at the end of the year following his high-profile romance with Italian supermodel-turned-singer Carla Bruni. (Reuters)

TEHRAN - Iran's chief judge has ordered that executions will no longer take place in public, the official IRNA news agency reported yesterday. Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi also banned publishing pictures and broadcasting video footage of executions, the report said. Executions can now only be carried out in public after special approval by the head of the judiciary, the report said. (AP)