The global financial crisis caused a rush demand for long-standig values. Gold - a conservative and scarcely profit-oriented investment of minor risk - is gaining new interest nowadays. Hitting an all-time-high of more than 1,000 USD per oz this popular for thousands of years shiny “raw material” lived up to its name.
For those who became soiled over and over by digging for it gold hardly offers any bright prospects.

By Andrew Downie (The New York Times)
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 25, 2008
Fears have been growing over the future of the world’s biggest rain forest, in Brazil, where annual deforestation figures fell to a 16-year low in 2007 but is on the rise again

Perhaps Guyana’s president, Bharrat Jagdeo, will inspire bigger countries like Brazil to take a far more aggressive role in protecting their rain forests
By Robert B. Semple Jr. (The New York Times) MONDAY, MAY 26, 2008
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/05/26/opinion/edsemple.php