NORWAY - Norway's Government Pension Fund Global has shed its NOK13.7bn (US$2.4bn) investment in 17 tobacco producing companies including Philip Morris and British American Tobacco.

CANADA - Canada's financial stability could be at risk by the discovery that current methods of accounting for public sector pension obligations may have been understating their true costs by C$58bn (US$56.3bn), a think tank said.

UK - The number of schemes putting contingent assets in place jumped by 30% to 587 in 2009/10, research from the Pension Protection Fund and The Pensions Regulator revealed.

MEXICO - The Mexican government should require companies and employees to more than double their pension contributions to bolster retirement incomes and the economy, said Oscar Franco, head of the pension association.

NORWAY - Officials at Norges Bank Investment Management (NBIM), manager for the Government Pension Fund Global, have written to the Ministry of Finance to defend its use of active management, as the future use of the investment strategy comes under question....

US - Emerging market specialist Finisterre Capital has launched an absolute return fund seeded with US$250m of initial capital from the New York State Common Retirement Fund (CRF).

MEXICO - The country's pension fund assets rose 22.8% in 2009 to MXN1.15trn (US$90.8bn), according to data released by the Comisión Nacional del Sistema de Ahorro para el Retiro (CONSAR).

GLOBAL - A coalition of 141 institutional and individual investors has demanded oil giant Shell report on the investment risks associated with its controversial Canadian oil sands project.

US - The California Public Employees' Retirement System, the largest U.S. public pension, said private investment firms paid at least $125m to placement agents for help winning contracts to manage the fund's money.

GLOBAL - Pension funds could be neglecting their fiduciary responsibilities by ignoring the growing opportunities in climate change-related sectors, an investment bank suggested.