A locust plague in Madagascar threatens the livelihoods of 13 million people. If untreated, infestations could obliterate crops and livestock-grazing lands. In September, officials launched an emergency programme to tackle the crisis, which brought under control a locust population that had been feasting on more than 1m hectares of land Continue reading... ...
A nine-year-old girl tells how her family and village in Madagascar came back from near starvation after scientists showed them how to protect their fishing grounds from overfishing and adopt sustainable practices. Vezo's director, Tod Lending, is an Oscar-nominated and national Emmy-winning producer, director and cinematographer. Vezo is a Sundance Institute short film challenge winner. Entries are...
Global trade union IndustriAll accuses Anglo-Australian firm of 'very wide breaches of fundamental rights' in failure over safety Protesters and unions from around the world heavily criticise mining company Rio Tinto on Tuesday over alleged lapses in safety leading to the deaths of 41 people and a string of claimed environmental abuses. Global trade union IndustriAll, which represents 50 million industrial...
International development secretary says system must be overhauled to ensure that more is done to prepare for disasters The global humanitarian aid system is being "stretched to breaking point" by climate change, war, population growth and extremism, and must be overhauled to ensure that more is done to prepare for disasters rather than merely relieve them, the British government will warn...
Evidence from skulls in east London shows plague had to have been airborne to spread so quickly Archaeologists and forensic scientists who have examined 25 skeletons unearthed in the Clerkenwell area of London a year ago believe they have uncovered the truth about the nature of the Black Death that ravaged Britain and Europe in the mid-14th century. Analysis of the bodies and of wills registered in...
Crowd sets fire to two men on island of Nosy Be after dead child is found on beach with organs removed Two men have been burned alive by a crowd in Madagascar who suspected them of trafficking human organs after a dead child was found on a beach, police say. The men, one of whom was French, were hunted down and killed by residents on the island of Nosy Be, one of the Indian Ocean island's leading tourism...
A Madagascan pochard duckling, one of 18 hatched in a breeding programme on the island, took his first steps on Thursday. The duckling, named Voalonany, meaning 'the first' in Malagasy, is one of only 60 of his species in the world. The Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust (WWT) launched a programme to save the bird, the world's most endangered duck, in 2009...
Ten countries across two continents will share location of world's most powerful radio telescope Australia and South Africa will share the location of the world's most powerful radio telescope , a scientific consortium has announced. The 1.5bn (£1.2bn) Square Kilometre Array, or SKA, has been hailed as one of the biggest scientific projects of the 21st century. ...
Several arrests reported as troops thought to be loyal to former defence minister storm army base A group of mutinous soldiers in Madagascar took over a military camp near the main airport on Sunday, but were eventually driven out in an assault by government forces, the military said. Attempts to negotiate with the mutineers had failed, and an officer sent in to start talks was shot and later died...
s Legacy: Sex and Intelligence in Human Evolution (1999). She never described herself as a feminist, but simply lived a life that led and supported feminism. Daughter of the artist Alison Mason Kingsbury and the humorist and Cornell scholar Morris Bishop, Jolly was born and raised in Ithaca, New York. She graduated with a BA in zoology from Cornell University, Ithaca, and a PhD in zoology from Yale...
s first presidential election since a coup in 2009 but his closest rival said the vote was rigged, raising concerns the island could remain mired in political turmoil. The electoral commission said on Friday that Rajaonarimampianina, the candidate backed by outgoing president Andry Rajoelina, who spearheaded the coup nearly five years ago, won 53.5% of the vote on 20 December. He beat Jean Louis Robinson,...
The new president of Madagascar, Hery Rajaonarimampianina, has made it into the record books as the head of state with the longest family name. But how do other countries' leaders fare? Mona Chalabi ...
s the third time in a month that these bugs have come near here and I'm terrified we may lose everything," says Razafindradaoro. For this father of four, salvation could come from the heavens. Flying about 10 metres above the ground, a helicopter will soon be spraying insecticide in the area around Tsiroanomandidy, in central Madagascar, to eradicate the centimetre-long larvae that are destroying the...
s easy to sell because the wood is so famous," said Besy, whose skin glistens with red powder. "People from [the capital] Antananarivo come here [to buy goods]. They like it because they can sell it to foreigners." The father and son pair are just the tip of the booming trade in bois de rose, one of the world's rarest trees, even though the logging and export of rosewood from Madagascar is banned ....
s population in the middle ages, has reared its ugly head in the African island state of Madagascar where 32 people have died in a fresh outbreak, according to health authorities. Some 84 suspected cases of bubonic plague – 60 of them thought to be pneumonic or pulmonary plague, a more virulent strain of the disease – have been reported in five of the island...
s population in the Middle Ages – bubonic plague has killed 20 villagers in Madagascar in one of the worst outbreaks globally in recent years, health experts have confirmed. The confirmation that bubonic plague was responsible for the deaths last week near the north-western town of Mandritsara follows a warning in October from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) that the island nation...
s success. "Sometimes we can pre-empt what people want but qualitative research is essential." What is less obvious is why a conservation organisation would take on the work of a health NGO. "We took it on because no one else would, and because it would benefit our work," says Dr Vik Mohan, Blue Ventures' medical director and the brain behind Safidy. The case for population, health and environment...
t work, you don't eat," a resident said. Madagascar, off Africa's east coast on the Indian Ocean, was plunged into turmoil when the current president, Andry Rajoelina (left), a former DJ and mayor of Antananarivo, seized power from President Marc Ravalomanana with the help of the military in 2009. Rajoelina told reporters after casting his vote in Antananarivo that it was time Madagascar "returned...
t find anything and they are all making bricks now." It's not just the brickmakers who are struggling to make ends meet. Since a coup in February 2009, life in Madagascar has become increasingly precarious. The coup, led by Andry Rajoelina against the president, Marc Ravalomanana, was widely condemned by the international community. Sanctions swiftly followed: Madagascar was suspended from the Africa...
s hard. You have to dig deep to get them out, and they taste very bad if the rains haven't come yet. I leave at seven in the morning and come back in the afternoon, and we just have enough to eat in the evening. Then the next day, we go again." Faravavy's village, Ankazomanga, used to be close to the forest, but as more trees have been cut down, villagers have had to walk further and further to find...