CHINA: Publicity Harvest From Moon Probe

China is no trail blazer in moon exploration but its leadership used the country’s first lunar probe to score diplomatic points and showcase willingness to be less secretive about its much-criticised, secretive space programme.

TECHNOLOGY-SRI LANKA: Leapfrogging Out of Poverty on IT

In a north-central village, deep inside Sri Lanka’s backwoods, a young man is glued to a computer screen, pushing a mouse and filling in figures.

CLIMATE CHANGE: Trinidad Scientist Hopes to Build "Green Army"

While the world focuses on threats of terrorism and nuclear proliferation, a group of scientists is quietly working behind the scenes to fight another, less well-known battle - the war on climate change.

ENVIRONMENT-CUBA: Restoring Lost Balance in Nature

Efforts to restore degraded island ecosystems are already producing results in the central Cuban province of Villa Clara, where scientists from different disciplines have been fomenting environmentally-friendly practices since the beginning of this decade.

EGYPT: An Environmental Make-Over for an Ancient Industry

Air pollution is so bad in Cairo that living in the sprawling city of 18 million residents is said to be akin to smoking 20 cigarettes a day. According to the World Health Organisation, the average Cairene ingests more than 20 times the acceptable level of air pollution a day.

ENVIRONMENT: Ambitious Inventory of Marine Life

The inclusion of coral on the Red List of Threatened Species 2007 - of the World Conservation Union (IUCN) - is the first result of an ambitious marine life observation project, one that has goals of global conservation.

BRAZIL: Green-Friendly Image Yields Dividends for Business

One company is offering reforestation services for areas damaged by soil erosion, another advises factories on how to become carbon neutral, and a third offers environmental laboratory services to assess ecological damage. This new generation of business values the "eco-efficient lifestyle."

CLIMATE CHANGE: South American Scientists Call for Social Commitment

Counteracting the effects of climate change in Latin America requires the involvement of society, two of the South American scientists on the IPCC, which was awarded the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize, said in Ecuador.

ENVIRONMENT-ICELAND: Hay Restores Eroded Land

Icelandic farmers have found a successful way of repairing erosion escarpments: they blow cut-up hay at them.

CLIMATE CHANGE: Nobel Prize Recognises Scientific Community

Climate change is linked to world peace because the effects of global warming can threaten stability and harmony in the world, according to Rajendra Pachauri, one of thousands of international scientists who are to share the Nobel Peace Prize with former U.S. Vice President Al Gore.

CLIMATE CHANGE: Forests Join the Carbon Market

With deforestation as the second leading source of climate-changing greenhouse gas emissions, experts are focusing the discussion on the viability of compensating countries for protecting their forests.

SCIENCE: Gay Bombs, Randy Hamsters and Other Wondrous Items

Some of the world's most esteemed scientists paraded on stage in silly egg costumes as a researcher of airborne hamsters on Viagra was feted at the annual Ig Nobel science awards Thursday at Harvard University.

CLIMATE CHANGE: Entire Landscapes on the Move

The hot breath of global warming has now touched some of the coldest northern regions of world, turning the frozen landscape into mush as temperatures soar 15 degrees C. above normal.

BRAZIL: Warning – These Computers Come With Strings Attached

The declaration the Dell computer maker is requiring its Brazilian customers to sign, promising their computers will not be exported to the "axis of evil" or used for weapons development, according to reports, highlights the difficulties faced by scientific research due to U.S. geopolitical considerations.

ENVIRONMENT: Algae Against Climate Change?

Research into the use of algae to capture carbon dioxide from the air is changing the negative reputation of these organisms, often seen as a plague associated with agricultural fertiliser run-off.

CLIMATE CHANGE: The Skunk at His Own Garden Party

After years of denial, the U.S. White House-sponsored summit on climate change ended Friday with President George W. Bush admitting that global warming was real and humans were responsible and asking for heads of state to join him at yet another summit next year (when his presidency ends).

CLIMATE CHANGE: Time For Some Slightly Mad Ideas?

Lack of governmental action on climate change is forcing scientists to consider radical climate geo-engineering schemes such as giant vertical pipes in the ocean and growing vast blooms of plankton to try and prevent the worst from happening.

ENVIRONMENT-AFGHANISTAN: Goodbye Stinky, Dry Latrines

The pervasive smell of human ordure is warning enough that this is a city that badly needs a sanitation system.

ENERGY-SWEDEN: Wood Cellulose – Alternative to Brazilian Ethanol?

The world’s car makers are racing each other to produce powerful new models that run on ethanol-based fuels for the booming Swedish market.

CLIMATE CHANGE: &#39Fifteen Years and CO2 Still Rising&#39

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon took the industrialised countries to task here Monday for their failure to take drastic actions against climate change.

CLIMATE CHANGE: Publics in North and South Want Action

Amid a series of international conferences on climate change this week, the BBC has released a 21-nation survey in which two out of three respondents said they believed "major steps starting very soon" need to be taken to combat global warming.