RIO DE JANEIRO - More than 400 movies from 63 countries are participating in the fourth International Festival of Environmental Film and Video, taking place in the Brazilian city of Goiania Jun 5-9 as part of World Environment Day celebrations.

Documentaries, fictional works, animated films, videos and TV series are taking part in the festival, organized by the Goias Environment Agency and the Goiania Cultural Agency, with backing from the regional office of the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP).

BUENOS AIRES - The governmental National University of the Littoral, in the northwestern Argentine province of Santa Fe, has initiated production of medications for kidney problems and multiple sclerosis, which are sold within Argentina and exported to Brazil and Mexico by a private laboratory.

The university's cellular cultivation lab produces the erythropoietin hormone, developed through genetic engineering techniques to treat patients who suffer renal insufficiency, and the beta interferon composite, used to treat MS.

Zelltek, a company that used to import the active material used in producing these medicines, now sells the products and exports them in a successful public-private venture with the university.

Laboratory director Ricardo Kratje said efforts are now under way to develop a pharmaceutical to protect the body's cells from the harmful secondary effects of chemotherapy in treating cancer.

LIMA - The governments of Peru and Bolivia are promoting the creation of a corridor of land for conserving biological diversity, connecting eight protected areas in Peru and seven in Bolivia, and covering some 30 million hectares in the tropical Andean region.

The bi-national Vilcabamba-Amboró Corridor is to extend from the Apurimac Reserve, in southern Peru, to the Amboró National Park, in southwest Bolivia, and will include the Historic Sanctuary of Machu Picchu, says Gustavo Suárez Freitas, director of Natural Protected Areas of Peru.

MEXICO - The Mexican government will ratify the Stockholm Convention on controlling the persistent organic pollutants (POPs)

The Mexican Senate's Environment Commission is studying a bill for ratifying the international instrument that governs the handling of this type of industrial waste. Senator José Carlos Jiménez told Tierramérica there are strong indications that the process will be concluded in September.

In late May, a group of environmentalists sent a petition to Congress, outlining the health threat posed by the organochlorides, dioxins, furan, PCBs and hexachlorobenzenes, which are some of the "dirty dozen" substances regulated by the treaty and which are capable of traveling great distances and accumulating in the food chain.