Digital Journal

Old forests are losing ground, there are changes in river flows at critical times of the year, and wildlife habitat is losing out to agricultural landscapes in many cases, a comprehensive report ever on the state of Canada's biodiversity has revealed. Canadian Biodiversity: Ecosystem Status and Trends 2010, the first assessment of the country's biodiversity from an ecosystem perspective that presents 22 key findings, has also voiced concern over declines in certain bird populations, increases in...

The Bharat Diamond Bourse (BDB), labelled as the world's largest diamond trading centre, opened Sunday in India's financial capital Mumbai, more than 20 years after the idea was first mooted. The Bharat Diamond Bourse (BDB) is spread over 20 acres, with eight towers of nine storeys each, housing 2,500 offices in addition to the customs department, banks and other service providers who cater to the gems and jewellery trade. An extra space of 2 million sq ft has also been provided for auditoriums...

An unprecedented number of women will be in positions of power, Muslim immigration to the West will rise, and office workers will be unchained from their cubicles ― all in the next 40 years, says a consultancy set up by the author of Future Shock. Toffler Associates has released its predictions for the next 40 years to mark the 40th anniversary of Future Shock, in which author Alvin Toffler studied the 1970s to see what would happen in the future. Some of the predictions that the consultancy...

India's richest man, Mukesh Ambani, has moved into his new home in Mumbai — a 27-storey mansion worth $1 billion. The house, named Antilia, has three helipads, a dance studio, a ball room, a 50-seat theatre and an underground car park for 160 cars. The 27-floor building (560 ft or 173 m) will be home to Ambani, the richest man in India and the fourth richest in the world, plus his wife Nita, their three children - daughter Isha and sons Akash and Anant - and mother Kokilaben. The family will...

The rule of law thrives best in wealthy nations like Sweden and the Netherlands but is dismal in poorer countries like Pakistan, Kenya, and Liberia, according to the Rule of Law Index released by the World Justice Project (WPJ). The Rule of Law Index, which assessed 35 countries around the world, noted that high-income countries generally respect the rule of law more than poor countries. At the same time, however, it found wide differences in performance on specific variables within and between...

The floods that ravaged Pakistan since July caused an estimated $9.7 billion in damage to infrastructure, farms, homes, as well as other direct and indirect losses, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the World Bank (WB) have said. "$9.7 billion is almost double the amount of damage caused by the 2005 Pakistan earthquake," said Rune Stroem, ADB Country Director for Pakistan, on Friday. The two organisations made the estimate in their Damage and Needs Assessment (DNA), a survey conducted...

Rich nations such as the United States of offloading food it would not feed its own children to poorer countries as food aid, medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) has said. "Foods we would never give our own children are being sent overseas as food aid to the most vulnerable children in malnutrition hotspots in sub-Saharan Africa and parts of Asia," MSF's international president Unni Karunakara said in a statement. "This double standard must stop." MSF said food aid largely does not...

Those who rely on Fox News are more inclined to believe rumours, a study looking at the behavioral patterns of viewers of reports pertaining to the Ground Zero mosque in has concluded. According to the study, a typical viewer who reported a low reliance on Fox News believed 0.9 rumors on average, while a similar respondent with a high reliance on Fox believed 1.5 rumors – an increase of 66 percent. On the contrary, people who relied heavily on CNN or NPR believed fewer false rumors. High...

With Egypt’s parliamentary elections drawing closer, the Hosni Mubarak government has begun cracking down on the media. The moves include clamping down on broadcasts of live shows and the manipulated sacking of a prominent newspaper editor. Egypt’s High Committee for Elections has not yet announced an exact date, but the elections are expected to be held in November. Mubarak, 82, has not yet announced his intention to contest, but speculation is rife that he would prop up his son Gamal. The...

Germany is increasingly turning xenophobic. One in three Germans believe that the country has too many foreigners, and over one in ten want a Führer at the helm of affairs, a survey released by a left-wing Berlin think-tank said Wednesday. The Friedrich Ebert Foundation, affiliated to the Social Democratic Party (SPD), published the study titled Die Mitte in der Krise - Rechtsextreme Einstellungen in Deutschland 2010, or “The mainstream in the crisis – Right-wing extremist attitudes in Germany,”...