Archive for ‘africa’
New shrew-like mammal in Tanzania, in rare find
February 1st, 2008
A new type of shrew-like creature with a snout similar to an elephant’s trunk has been found in the mountains of Tanzania, the first new species of the mammal found since the 19th century, scientists said.
Popularity: 3%
No water in Nairobi slum
January 24th, 2008
In Nairobi’s central slum, Kibera, nearly a million people are crowded together with no proper water supply.
Popularity: 3%
West Africa’s last giraffes
January 8th, 2008
Niger is home to the remaining giraffes in the whole of western Africa. They live in the Kouré region in the south west of the country, away from all natural predators but in direct contact with humans. Locals have become partners in the protection of the endangered animals, taught to see them as an asset to be protected rather than …
Popularity: 2%
Unique Kenyan game park under human threat
December 31st, 2007
A short distance from the slums and skyscrapers of Nairobi, Naanyu Ntirrisa pulls thorn bushes around her Maasai village to keep out marauding lions that have killed a cow and two sheep.
Popularity: 3%
Kenya’s “sex tree” is flagging
December 14th, 2007
A short, scrawny bush found deep in Uganda’s rain forest and nicknamed the “sex tree” is rapidly approaching extinction as poachers are rushing to harvest it for its purported aphrodisiac properties. Experts say loss of the “sex tree” and other medicinal plants would not only do irreversible damage to the rain forest, but would also take a toll on local …
Popularity: 5%
Development threatens Morocco’s wild shoreline
December 12th, 2007
Ecologists say a tragedy is unfolding in north Africa where construction firms are moving in on some of the last unspoilt stretches of Mediterranean coastline in the search for profits.
Popularity: 3%
Old divides remain as EU, Africa look for new alliance
December 8th, 2007
European and African leaders agreed on the need for a new alliance between the continents on Saturday, but the old divides between them seemed to dog proceedings at the second EU- Africa summit in Lisbon.
Popularity: 2%
Activists urge rich to pay up to help poor adapt to climate change
December 4th, 2007
Environmental groups attending a UN climate change conference said Tuesday that rich countries pay little to help poor nations adapt to climate change and described such aid as an “insult.”
Popularity: 4%
Africa’s largest lake under threat as bleak future predicted
December 4th, 2007
“Lake Victoria is doomed,” lake specialist Eric Odada says with certainty regarding the future of the world’s second largest body of water. And on closer inspection, the dire prediction seems like it might be right.
Popularity: 6%
Africa “forgotten continent” in climate fight
November 18th, 2007
Africa is the “forgotten continent” in the fight against climate change and needs help to cope with projected water shortages and declining crop yields, the U.N.’s top climate change official said on Sunday.
Popularity: 4%
Oil profits trickling down? Not for Cameroon fishermen
November 14th, 2007
While world oil prices surge to record levels — bringing unheard-of profits to international oil majors — African communities complain that they are not getting their share of the cash. Four years after the opening of a 1,000 kilometre pipeline bringing crude from Chad to an export terminal on the coast of Cameroon, fishermen working near the multi-million-dollar facility claim …
Popularity: 2%
Africa’s big plans for biofuels
November 6th, 2007
Visitors to the poor south-east African country of Mozambique are often taken aback at the cost of getting around. “Is petrol is problem,” taxi drivers in the capital Maputo retort when challenged over fares that begin at 100 meticais (close to 4 dollars) for a journey of no more than a couple of blocks.
Popularity: 2%
Fighting blindness in Burkina Faso
November 5th, 2007
Burkina Faso is one of the poorest countries in the world with about half the population living below the poverty line. Children are particularly hard hit by economic hardship. Malnutrition causes serious health problems, including troubled vision and even blindness.
Popularity: 3%
Abandoned Blind Baby Rhino On 24-Hour Watch
November 4th, 2007
Conservationists in Kenya are on a 24-hour watch to save a baby black rhino who was born blind.
Popularity: 2%
Zimbabwe AIDS prevalence rate falls further
November 1st, 2007
Zimbabwe’s HIV prevalence rate has continued falling and now stands at less than 16 percent from more than 18 percent last year, government figures in the southern African country showed on Thursday.
Popularity: 3%
