In Ecuador, rivers, plants and animals have rights By ZOE CORMIER  -- Ecuador has become the first nation in the world to grant constitutional rights to the natural environment.On Sept. 28, the country voted for a new constitution that - among changes to education, social security and elections - gives many of the same rights to rivers, forests, plants and animals as it does to people.  FULL STORY

Dyson nixes plans for design school By JAMES ADAMS  -- British vacuum-cleaner mogul Sir James Dyson has scrapped plans to build a high-tech engineering school in the historic English city of Bath on the site of a now-defunct 19th-century factory designed by Thomas Fuller, architect of Ottawa's original Parliament Buildings  FULL STORY