Most requests receive hostile responses and blank refusals to provide information. In Erdenet, the site of a large copper mine which is Mongolia's main export earner, local reporters seek to investigate environmental damage caused by the mine. Journalists say they face a brick wall when trying to get information from mine officials and local authorities. This is the only collective bargaining agreement in Guatemala's maquiladora export garment sector and one of very few in the region. In Taiwan, officials are cracking down on the national pastime of betel-nut chewing.
Betel nuts are ground and chewed like tobacco.
The Government claims the habit is responsible for lax morals including laziness and promiscuity. There is growing evidence that limits on betel-nut chewing may improve public health as the copper content may be the cause of the nation's high oral cancer rate. Betel-nuts contain ten times the amount of copper found in peanuts. Mayor of Bogota Paul Bromberg's description of Colombia's 'Love and Friendship Day'.