In the next month, all African eyes will be on the race to see who will represent the continent on the United Nations Security Council. Polite diplomacy is quickly giving way to horse-trading. At a meeting in Swaziland in February, the African Union called for two permanent seats with veto power and two additional rotating seats on a reformed Security Council of 26.
Stocks of a small, herring-like fish that provides omega-3 essential fatty acids for supplements taken by millions of people could be endangered because of the Western world’s obsession with health foods, conservationists warn. At risk is the future of the menhaden fish, which breeds in Chesapeake Bay and lives along the United States’s eastern seaboard.
Recently, the World Trade Organisation kicked off yet another attempt to put back on track stalled talks that aim to reform the rules governing world trade in everything from sugar through manufactured goods to services such as insurance. WTO chief Supachai Panitchpakdi recently said he was pressing the panic button because the talks were in danger of failing.
A week after London was hit by a series of bomb blasts, the death cult struck again, unstoppable in its deranged religious mania. This time no deaths but a savage reminder of the unknown waves of demented killers lining up to murder in the name of God.
Modified genes from crops in a genetically modified (GM) crop trial have transferred into local wild plants, creating a form of herbicide-resistant “superweed”. The cross-fertilisation between GM oilseed rape and a distantly related plant, charlock, had been discounted as virtually impossible by scientists with the British government’s environment department.
Dozens of urbanised black bears are making life uncomfortable for residents of the coastal mountain suburbs of Vancouver in Canada’s westernmost province of British Columbia. The number of complaints against black bears in north Vancouver has reached an all-time high of 1Â 200 so far this year, four times the number conservation officers received last year.
After nearly six months of political dilly-dallying, the United Nations Security Council has taken the first ”major” step to protect children in armed conflicts — but has stopped short of penalising member states and rebel groups guilty of recruiting and abusing them.
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South Africa’s long-term foreign and local currency sovereign credit ratings were raised one notch each by agency Standard & Poor’s on Monday. The upgrade, which reflects on a country’s ability to repay money borrowed on the international markets, is based on improved macro-economic stability, the agency said in a statement.