Segnalazione: Africa: Violence Against Women Must Stop Now - UN Chief [opinion]

Seconda segnalazione: Africa: Country Saves Seeds in Global Bank

Africa: Adult Education in Continent Underfunded
MOST countries have made little progress in reducing the number of adult illiterates in the past decade because the programme receives minimal political attention and funding, stakeholders have said.

TRADE: EPAs Born of EU’s Concern with China in Africa
CAPE TOWN, Feb 26 (IPS) - The European Union (EU) is concerned about competing with China for access to resources and markets in Africa, which partly explains its drive to hook African states into the trade deals called economic partnership agreements (EPAs).

Lifestraw Named World-Changing Idea
Lifestraw, the portable drinking filtration system, nabbed the top honor in the fifth Saatchi & Saatchi Award for World Changing Ideas last Thursday. Worn around the neck and used like a regular straw, Lifestraw claims to filter 99.9999 percent of bacteria and 98.7 percent of viruses using a halogen-based resin.

Tiny Eskimo Village Sues 24 Big Energy Companies
A tiny Alaskan village is suing 24 major energy companies for damages due to global warming. The 390 residents of Kivalina, an Inupiat Eskimo village built on a barrier reef in the Arctic Ocean, have found themselves of the front lines of climate change over the past few years, as melting sea ice has exposed the village to storms and erosion. The cost of eventually relocating the entire village has been estimated at $400 million.
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/47219/story.htm

How to Save the Rainforests
While we have fixated on our little local worries over the past week, the biggest news story of the year passed unnoticed in the night. The Brazilian government was forced to admit that the destruction of the Amazon rainforest has returned to ecocidal levels. An area the size of Belgium, taking thousands of years to evolve, was destroyed in the past year alone.

Animal magnetism provides a sense of direction
They may not be on most people’s list of most attractive species, but bats definitely have animal magnetism. Researchers from the Universities of Leeds and Princeton have discovered that bats use a magnetic substance in their body called magnetite as an ”˜internal compass’ to help them navigate.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/02/080226213443.htm

Feeling Blue? Not Like A Maya Sacrificial Victim
WASHINGTON - There was more than the obvious reason to feel blue for people offered in human sacrifice rituals by the ancient Maya to their rain god -- they were painted blue before being heaved into a watery sinkhole.
http://www.livescience.com/history/080226-maya-blue.html

Amazingly Sensitive Rat Whiskers Explained
Like a finely tuned harp, the whiskers on a rat's snout pick up particular frequencies and send these teensy signals to the brain. Now scientists have caught the whisker signals on video.