Dozens of Dominicans in beach gear demand more access to country’s beaches and rivers

October 9th, 2009 HYDERABAD - Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Friday said interlinking of rivers was "not an easy task" and its environmental fallout would have to be studied first, days after Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi voiced his opposition to the proposal. He said all aspects would have to be looked into while considering the proposal.

September 30th, 2009 Dominican soldiers to settle along Haiti borderSANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic — Authorities plan to relocate soldiers and their families to border communities that are home to thousands of illegal Haitian immigrants and increasingly fewer Dominicans. Dozens of families will move next year as part of a pilot program to reforest the area, repair run-down homes and teach locals how to read and write, Military Secretary Pedro Rafael Pena said Wednesday.

September 30th, 2009 Rescuers comb Curacao for missing US diplomatWILLEMSTAD, Curacao — Rescuers searching for a U.S. diplomat led sniffer dogs over beaches Wednesday as technicians prepared to comb the sea floor with a robotic device for traces of a vice consul who vanished on this Dutch Caribbean island last week.

September 30th, 2009 DomRep debates access to property to reach beachSANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic — Legislators in the Dominican Republic are debating whether to allow residents access rights to private property so they can reach beaches, rivers and lakes. President Leonel Fernandez recently submitted a proposal to amend the constitution, which currently bars people from entering such property.

August 22nd, 2009 Hurricane Bill's winds weaken as it nears USEDGARTOWN, Mass. — A weakening Hurricane Bill continued to blow northward Sunday, churning up rough seas, creating dangerous rip tides after closing beaches to weekend swimmers up and down the eastern seaboard, including President Barack Obama's planned vacation spot, Martha's Vineyard.

July 31st, 2009 Mexico shuts Cancun beach, alleges sand was stolenMEXICO CITY — Surprised tourists found their little piece of Cancun beach paradise ringed by crime-scene tape and gun-toting sailors on Thursday. Environmental enforcement officers backed by Mexican navy personnel closed off hundreds of feet (dozens of meters) of powder-white coastline in front of a hotel accused of illegally accumulating sand on its beach.

July 27th, 2009 PANAJI - A legislator of the ruling Congress party in Goa Monday claimed the state's renowned Calangute beach has been parcelled out between various international narcotics cartels. Speaking in the assembly, Calangute legislator Agnelo Fernandes said that drug cartels from Nigeria, Scotland, Israel and Russia had carved out independent pockets of influence in the popular coastal village of Calangute and even he felt threatened travelling there at night.

July 14th, 2009 KATHMANDU - Within 48 hours of Indian Water Resources Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal visiting Nepal to inspect the repaired embankment of the Kosi river that had created havoc in both countries last year, India gave Nepal NRs.131.6 million (about $1.6 million) to fight floods. Alok K. Sinha, deputy chief of mission at the Indian embassy in Kathmandu, Tuesday handed over a cheque of NRs.131.6 million to Umakant Jha, secretary at Nepal's irrigation ministry, as India's contribution for the construction of embankments along the Lalbakeya and Bagmati rivers.

June 19th, 2009 Marin County to crack down on nude sunbathersMUIR BEACH, Calif. — Officials are trying to curb lewd conduct at a longtime nude beach north of San Francisco after hearing complaints from a group of local residents.

June 15th, 2009 High court steps into Fla. beach erosion disputeWASHINGTON — The Supreme Court has stepped into a property-rights dispute over plans to rebuild eroded beaches on Florida's Gulf coast.

June 7th, 2009 PARIS - After a scandal and an electoral setback, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown suffered more humiliation at the commemoration of the 65th anniversary of the D-Day landings in Normandy when he inadvertently renamed one of the nearby beaches after US President Barack Obama. During his address Saturday to World War II veterans and a number of world leaders, including Obama, a visibly preoccupied Brown said: "Next to Obama Beach, we join President Obama in paying particular tribute to the spectacular bravery of American soldiers who gave their lives." The beach on which thousands of Allied soldiers were killed during the D-Day landings is called Omaha Beach and is named after the largest city in the US state of Nebraska.

June 7th, 2009 Sewage concerns close NYC's Coney Island beachNEW YORK — Swimmers are being kept out of the water at Coney Island and nearby Manhattan Beach because of concerns about a sewage overflow. The New York City Parks Department posted signs Sunday saying swimming wasn't permitted at the two Brooklyn beaches.

April 29th, 2009 Fla. man, 70, protests brown sand on white beachSIESTA KEY, Fla. — The beaches of Siesta Key in Sarasota are known for its white sand, and residents want to keep it that way.

April 19th, 2009 JAMMU - Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) leader Mehbooba Mufti Sunday said the water sharing treaty with Pakistan was discriminatory as it denies Jammu and Kashmir its due share of waters of the rivers flowing through it. 'I will launch a mass movement if the state is not adequately compensated over the use of its waters by the central government,' Mehbooba Mufti told an election meeting in Kishtwar, 230 km northeast of Jammu.

February 3rd, 2009 PANAJI - Two Goan legislators from coastal constituencies Wednesday said that drug trade was flourishing on the state's beach belt and accused the police of sheltering drug traffickers. Agenlo Fernandes, the Congress legislator from the tourism hub of Calangute, told the state assembly that repeated complaints by him to the police about rampant drug trade in his constituency had fallen on deaf ears.