Five women who have been prime ministers in their countries were at Harvard University Wednesday to discuss how to get more women into a nation's highest office. Maria Liberia-Peters, former prime minister of the Netherlands Antilles, said, "Some potential leaders get lost on their way because they have not been privileged to be exposed to possibilities, to help them develop certain skills." Others became leaders because they were privileged to have met on their way the infrastructure and the necessary support to help them develop, she said. She was joined by Canada's Kim Campbell, Turkey's Tansu Ciller, Iceland's Vigdis Finnbogadottir and Poland's Hanna Suchocka. See http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=2553938231-cb6
Brazil pledged Wednesday to protect an unprecedented 62 million acres of Amazon forest - an area equivalent in size to Britain - by the end of the century. The pledge announced by President Cardoso is the single-largest forest conservation bid in the Amazon, the home of one-third of the planet's surviving tropical forests and one-tenth of its plant and animal species. By itself it would account for half of the goal set by the World Bank and the World Wildlife Fund in their alliance to protect 10% of the world's remaining forests by 2000. See http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=2553934334-0b3
