Digital Journal

About 166 million people in 22 countries are suffering chronic hunger or difficulty finding enough to eat as a result of protracted food crises. Wars, natural disasters and poor government institutions are exacerbating this state of undernourishment. The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said these countries are in what is termed a protracted crisis and said assistance should be refocused for countries around the world suffering from double and triple shocks. Chronic hunger and food...

A fanged fish and a fangless snake, five new mammal species, a bald bird and a frog that sounds like a cricket are among the 145 species newly described by science in the Greater Mekong region during 2009, says a WWF report. The report, New Blood: Greater Mekong new species discoveries 2009, says an average of three new species are recorded by science each week in the Greater Mekong – a rate of discovery that marks this region as one of the frontiers for new species discoveries on our planet...

A woman was injected with HIV-infected blood by two of her daughters who were after her property. Bharathi, a 59-year-old woman who lives in the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, has now fallen ill and been admitted to a hospital. One of the two daughters works as a nurse in the same hospital, and she allegedly injected the HIV-infected blood into her mother. After a while, Bharathi's condition worsened and she was admitted to another hospital where the doctors confirmed she was infected...

Egyptian archaeologists have unearthed part of a 3,000-year-old granite double statue of the pharaoh Amenhotep III, believed to be the grandfather of the young King Tutankhamun. The statue has been excavated at Kom El-Hittan on the west bank of Luxor. "The statue is one of the best new finds in the area because of its expert craftsmanship, which reflect the skills of the ancient Egyptian artisans," Dr Zahi Hawass, Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA), announced on his...

British scientist Robert Edwards, who helped revolutionise the treatment of human infertility, has won the 2010 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, the Nobel Assembly at Sweden's Karolinska Institute in Stockholm has announced. Edwards, 85, won the prestigious prize for his work on in-vitro fertilisation (IVF), which has helped millions of infertile couples to have a child. "His contributions represent a milestone in the development of modern medicine," the Nobel Assembly at the Swedish...

Almost a third of Muslim women in the US who wear hijabs (headscarves) are concerned about applying for work, researchers have found. Almost two-thirds say they are aware of instances where women wearing hijabs have been refused work. Professor Sonia Ghumman from the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa Shidler College of Business and Professor Linda A Jackson from Michigan State University recently examined the expectations that women who wear hijabs have regarding their employment opportunities...

Ten years after the landmark World Commission on Dams (WCD) report, activists say the guidelines charted out by the document remain India's best roadmap towards ensuring that future dams minimise social and environmental impacts. The most comprehensive guidelines for large dams that protect the rights of river-dependent communities were outlined by the WCD in 2000. The commission had assessed the development effectiveness of dams in an independent, participatory process, and established what has...

The world played a mute spectator to the Rwandan genocide of Tutsis in the Nineties. It enacted the same role when untold atrocities were being perpetrated in DR Congo. Now that the UN report on DRC is out, the world must speak out. And, of course, act. The 566-page UN report, DRC: Mapping human rights violations 1993-2003, is not merely a clinical catalogue of violence committed in the Democratic Republic of Congo between 1993 and 2003. It is a documentation of till how far human beings can go...

An alliance of conservationists and international donors have unveiled a map of six priority areas on the Mediterranean rim aimed at guiding policy for preserving precious habitats and threatened species. The 251-page ecosystem profile was launched last week by the Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund (CEPF), whose constituents include the World Bank, the Global Environment Facility (GEF), the Government of Japan, the John D and Catherine T MacArthur Foundation, and Conservation International...

Argentina has passed a landmark law that seeks to protect environmentally sensitive glaciers by imposing strict limits on mining. The Bill, passed by the Senate on Thursday last, prohibits mining near glaciers along Argentina's 5,000 km border with Chile. The Bill was approved by a tight vote of 35 to 33, with one abstention, said a Reuters report. The Bill had been passed by the lower house of Parliament earlier in July. President Cristina Kirchner had vetoed a 2008 Bill to protect glaciers...