The report presents a mixed picture. Over the past 25 years, there have been notable improvements in child well-being in the group of countries examined in this report: steady decline in child mortality, overall reduction in adolescent suicide and increase in school completion rates. But the last five years have …
AGNIMIRH BASU Bertrand de la Chapelle is the Special Envoy for the Information Society, French Foreign and European Affairs Ministry. A recent meeting of the Internet Corporation of Assigned Names and Numbers in New Delhi discussed how to make Internet governance more global. Chapelle, who attended the meet, talks to …
Hunkering down is the safe option if leaving home is risky, but it's a strategy that could leave you out on an evolutionary limb. Surrounded mostly by concrete rather than fertile soil, urban weeds have evolved - in just a dozen generations - to keep their seeds close to home, …
The iroise marine park in Brittany, France, could serve as a model for fishermen who wish to move towards sustainable fisheries while retaining their sources of livelihood.
France has announced a ban on the sale of 1,500 pesticides from February 1, 2008. The move is part of the country's plan to phase out the use of 53 phytosanitary substances, used in pesticides, over the next decade. Environmentalists say these substances are suspected of putting farmers' health at …
Researchers have developed the first animal model of the infection caused by chikungunya virus (CHIKV), an emerging arbovirus associated with large-scale epidemics that hit the Indian Ocean, seriously affecting the French Island of La Reunion in 2005, before spreading to India, and Italy in 2007. Using a mouse model, scientists …
on january 11, France decided to extend its October 2007 ban on a variety of gm maize. It decided to activate a European Union guideline that prohibits the cultivation of gm corn. The variety, Mon 810, developed by food multinational Monsanto, is the only gm crop that France is growing. …
These 17,000-year-old cave paintings of bison, wild cattle, deer and other animals are facing a fungal attack for the second time in seven years. Nicknamed Sistine Chapel of pre-history, the caverns are at Lascaux in southwestern France. Scientists are treating the cave walls with a fungicide to check the spread …
>> Smoking has been banned in restaurants and cafes in France and Germany. Eight German states have ushered in 2008 declaring their pubs and restaurants smoke-free. The new ban is seen as a big cultural shift for France, where smoky cafes have long been the haunts of famous artists and …
An explosive outbreak in a remote corner of France--and fears that it may threaten Europe and the United States--have brought fresh attention to an exotic virus.
France has been in the grip of a wave of strike against economic reform measures set in by the president Nicolas Sarkozy. The transport workers initiated the strike on November 13 against plans to reform pension schemes for public-sector power and transport workers. At the time of going to press, …
Agriculture ministers of 10 eu countries voted against the approval of three genetically modified (gm) varieties of maize for use in the European market on September 26, but failed to block it. The move reflects divisions among eu nations over whether gm crops pose a risk to health. Austria, Malta, …
>> Leonardo DiCaprio's documentary The 11th Hour opened in theatres on August 17. The film starts with a bleak outlook on issues like global warming. Much of the roughly 90-minute movie is, however, not bleak. It suggests ways to heal the environment with human, government and corporate action. >> Ushuaia …
albert einstein is said to have said: "If the honeybee becomes extinct, mankind will follow within four years.' The physicist wasn't entirely off the mark
