While its Latin American neighbors move forward with national climate laws, Argentina is backsliding on actions to tackle its greenhouse gas emissions as the country struggles to meet energy demand from a fast-growing middle class.

Argentina's GDP grew 7.3 percent last year, driving demand for energy that is overwhelmingly derived from fossil fuels. According to Argentine Institute of Petroleum and Gas (IAPG), energy demand rose 5.1 percent in 2011.

Peru became the latest developing country to enact a domestic climate change initiative in the absence of a binding global pact, adopting a resolution on Thursday to lower carbon emissions in its fast-growing economy.

As one of the world's most geographically diverse places, Peru said it is already feeling the effects of a changing climate, such as melting tropical glaciers in the Andes and high levels of solar radiation.

A major earthquake of 6.1 magnitude struck in Argentina, 69 miles (111 km) east southeast of Santiago del Estero at a depth of 340 miles (550 km), the U.S. Geological Survey said.

The quake occurred at 4:46 a.m. (7:46 a.m. British time) on Monday. A quake of that magnitude nearer the earth's surface could cause severe damage in a densely populated area.

Santiago del Estero is in north central Argentina and has a population of about 245,000.

Will launch series of measures that will cost European airlines and plane makers heavily

Faced with the European Union's decision to impose a carbon tax on all flights operating on its skies, India and 22 other countries, including Russia, China and the US, have decided to retaliate with a series of measures which would impose heavy costs on European airlines and plane manufacturers.

European farmers are likely to fall behind in the competitive world grain market as EU consumer hostility to genetically modified organisms (GMOs) drives away research and prevents cultivation of high-yield and pest-resistant crops.

The European Union has approved only one GMO grain for cultivation - Monsanto's insect-resistant MON810 maize (corn). Fierce opposition has led Germany, Austria, Greece, Hungary, Luxembourg and Bulgaria to ban it.

The United States remained the primary backer of biotech crop technology in 2011, but adoption spread internationally as the total global planted area of genetically modified seeds grew 8 percent from a year ago, according to a report issued Tuesday.

Roughly 160 million hectares, or 395.2 million acres, were planted with biotech crops in 2011, up 8 percent from 2010, said the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-Biotech Applications (ISAAA) in its annual report on biotech seed use.

The Obama administration is laying the groundwork for possible retaliation in response to a European law requiring airlines to pay for carbon emissions.

Discussions between key agencies have ramped up recently, although there is no consensus yet on what, if anything, the U.S. government should do unilaterally or in concert with other nations also upset with the law.

The EU law went into effect on January 1 and requires global airlines to pay for carbon emissions on flights to and from Europe.

Simulation based on data from the GRACE satellites and historical weather records reveals the effects of this year's drought in Texas (driest conditions shown in dark red)

Groundwater levels have dropped in many places across the globe over the past nine years, a pair of gravity-monitoring satellites finds. This trend raises concerns that farmers are pumping too much water out of the ground in dry regions.

Grain output is growing as farmers chase high prices, according to US government figures, suggesting food inflation pressures may abate in the months to come.

Farmers would harvest 681.2m tonnes of wheat and record crops of 860.1m tonnes of corn and 461.4m tonnes of rice in the current year, the US Department of Agriculture said, as it raised output forecasts for each grain in its monthly report.

The brightening outlook comes after grain prices returned to levels last reached during the food crisis of 2007-8.

The musty jaguar pelts on display at a government office in Buenos Aires are a grim reminder of the big cat's precarious existence in Argentina's northern forests.

The Iguazu waterfalls that border Paraguay and Brazil mark what is now the outer limit of the jaguar's range. Just 50 of the big cats are estimated to live in the sub-tropical jungle around the famous falls.

Out of sight of the tourist hordes, Argentine scientists have been monitoring one of the nation's last remaining jaguar populations since 2003.