SCIENCE: Genome Guru Seeks Patent on Synthetic Life Form

Patent applications for the world's first-ever human-made species have been made to patent offices around the world.

ENVIRONMENT-CUBA: The Fragile Smile of the Dolphin

The dolphin’s friendly smile might be nothing more than a beautiful but sad memory by the end of this century if nothing is done about the threats faced by these marine mammals.

ENVIRONMENT-INDIA: Mega Nuclear Plant Hits Popular Opposition

Even as the Indian government gropes in the dark for a coherent policy on energy and the environment, it is rooting hard for a highly unpopular nuclear power project here, close to the peninsula's southern tip.

EDUCATION-AFRICA: Will eLearning Make Teachers Redundant?

Does electronic learning (eLearning) threaten to displace the teacher?

SCIENCE-AUSTRALIA: Optimal Pesticide Use Can Save Cotton Farmers

A relatively low-tech approach to managing pesticides promises to help hundreds of thousands of cotton farmers across Asia raise yields and reduce environmental contamination.

CLIMATE CHANGE: Shanghai Under Siege

Few people in this city ever imagine that their future would be defined by the ocean's rising tides. Dire climate change predictions have failed to stir public imagination into conjuring up images of China's most forward -looking city being engulfed by seawaters.

BRAZIL: Tapping Hydroelectric Dams for Methane Gas

Hydroelectricity is not as clean as most people might believe, because the reservoirs created by dams in tropical areas - and in forested zones in particular - emit greenhouse gases from the decomposition of organic material. But this downside can be turned into a benefit, and give a boost to the amount of energy generated.

INDIA-US: Impasse Over Nuclear Fuel Reprocessing Rights

High official-level talks between the United States and India to clinch the nuclear cooperation deal initialled in July 2005 have failed to narrow mutual differences and produce an agreement.

CLIMATE CHANGE: From Big Melt to Big Swamp

The Earth is going dark. From the Arctic Ocean to the Himalayan mountains to the Russian tundra, ice and snow are in rapid and permanent retreat in response to global warming, a new U.N. report said Tuesday.

ENVIRONMENT-INDIA: Rising Seas Threaten Bengal’s Deltaic People

Just weeks ago Subodh Patra, a villager on the Indian Sunderbans, lost the crops on his one-acre farm to rising sea water. And now he and his family dare not sleep at night for fear that even their humble dwelling will be inundated.

BRAZIL: South America&#39s Agro-Power Heats Up

Brazil, one of the world's agricultural superpowers, will see changes in the map of its emblematic crops, like coffee and soybeans, as a result of global climate change, say the latest studies.

CLIMATE CHANGE-INDIA: Business as Usual on the Kerala Coast

Andrews Ambrose never misses a chance to share the wisdom he gained from 40 years of life as a fisherman on this coastal strip. He has to his credit two books and a map of the seabed.

ENERGY-MALAWI: Technology to Save Forests

Malawi's utilisation of energy resources is heavily dominated by firewood, which provides 93 percent of all energy needs. Current annual household consumption of firewood and charcoal are at 7.5 million tons, exceeding sustainable supply by 3.7 million tons.

CLIMATE CHANGE: Overcoming the Ostrich Effect

The vast majority of North Americans now declare that they want action on climate change. But whether people are truly willing to embrace "carbon-neutral" lifestyles - including giving up their gas-guzzling sports utility vehicles - remains an open question, say experts.

ENVIRONMENT: Earth, Inc. Sliding Into Bankruptcy

Build a shrimp farm in Thailand by cutting down mangrove forests and you will net about 8,000 dollars per hectare. Meanwhile, the destruction of the forest and pollution from the farm will result in a loss of ecosystems worth 35,000 dollars/ha per year.

INDIA/US: Last Lap Hurdles in Nuclear Deal

The United States-India nuclear cooperation agreement, initialled almost two years ago, has run into obstacles in the final stages of negotiation.

CLIMATE CHANGE: Indian Scientists Yet to Study Biodiversity Impacts

Scientists at the prestigious Indian Institute of Science (IISc) based in this southern Indian city say that field studies of climate change impacts in India are currently non-existent, with no attention being given to them.

BOLIVIA: Faster Internet Connections – For the Few

A varied crowd of academics, civil servants, and university and high school students gathered in the hall of the vice-presidential building to celebrate Internet Day. The main event was the launching of Internet II, a project to incorporate Bolivia into the cutting-edge Latin American Cooperation of Advanced Networks (CLARA).

ENVIRONMENT: Southern Ocean Nears CO2 Saturation Point

Climate change has arrested the Southern Ocean's ability to absorb greenhouse gases from the atmosphere, researchers announced Thursday.

DEVELOPMENT: Poor Nations, States Dream of a Biotech Boom

Poor nations and U.S. states are offering huge financial breaks to biotechnology companies that agree to locate in their communities, but the belief that jobs and a better life will follow is often a pipedream - and one that comes at a high cost, critics say.

HEALTH-U.S.: Boston Residents Face to Face with Bio-War

The U.S. government and Boston University are facing protests and lawsuits for building a laboratory to research potential biological weapons in a neighbourhood whose residents are mostly African-American and Latinos.