Brazilian farmers demand weaker environmental laws

Brazilian farmers are demanding that the country's congress ease environmental laws in the Amazon region. Several thousand farmers and ranchers gathered in the capital of Brasilia on Tuesday to support for a bill that would let them clear half the land on their properties in environmentally sensitive areas. Current law allows just 20 percent in the Amazon zone. Farmers in the savanna-like ecosystem known as the Cerrado in central Brazil, farmers would have to protect 20 percent of their property instead of the current 35 percent. The bill would also reduce the areas next to rivers, lakes and water reservoirs that must remain untouched. AP