SCIENCE: Evolution Faster Than We Thought

Husband-wife science team Peter and Rosemary Grant, both 69 years old, have been following the footsteps of Charles Darwin in the Galapagos Islands since 1973. Through meticulous measurements of the beaks of finches and studying their song over several decades, they were able to document the speed of the natural selection process.

WSIS: This Cranked Up Computer Could Close a Gap

This little green computer runs without electricity or batteries, and it costs 100 dollars. And it could do more than all thhe speeches made at the World Summit on the Information Society to help narrow that 'digital divide'.

ENVIRONMENT: A New Nautilus

The SeaOrbiter looks like a strange marine giant, straight from the imagination of author Jules Verne. A silent vessel with no engine, it measures 51 metres high, floats half-submerged, and will travel the Atlantic Ocean's currents to study marine life and pollution.

ENVIRONMENT: New Historical Data on the Seas Spells Alarm

New historical data reveal that the world's oceans are in crisis, largely due to overfishing - and they may not recover.

TECHNOLOGY: Welcome to Ruralkenya.com

A generator rumbles behind the two-roomed building, which looks like one of the maize mills that dot Kenya's rural landscape. But, you're not likely to find a harvest of any sort in here - rather, food for thought.

POLITICS: Hiccups in Indo-Russian Defence Deals

Defence cooperation between India and Russia, which in recent years has included joint-development of cruise missiles, hit an air pocket when visiting Russian Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov insisted on an Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) agreement between the former cold-war allies.

PAKISTAN: Tents Not Sole Solution for Quake Victims

A fortnight after the devastating October 8 temblor hit the Kashmir region, the survivors are huddled down under plastic sheeting, cardboard or rocky overhangs, sheltering as best they can against a mercilessly cold and wet Himalayan winter.

SCIENCE-EUROPE: New Satellite for Measuring Polar Ice Melt

The failed launch of the European CryoSat II satellite earlier this month is an incalculable loss for climate change research, which requires the latest information about the melting of the polar ice caps caused by global warming, said scientists interviewed by Tierramérica.

ENVIRONMENT: Chilling Effects of Climate Change in the Antarctic

Climate change, which the scientific community links to the increased intensity of tropical storms and other extreme weather phenomena, is also making itself felt in Antarctica, where the "hole" in the ozone layer continues to grow and the increasing break-up of the ice shelves could have played a role in the recent deaths of Argentine and Chilean scientists and members of the military.

POLITICS: China Launches ‘Peaceful’ Manned Space Flight

China crowned a four-day meeting of its Communist party, that mapped a development blueprint for the next five years, with a display of economic strength and scientific might. It launched, Wednesday, two astronauts into space on a five-day mission-making China the third nation in the world, after Russia and the United States, to achieve such a level of space expertise.

COMMUNICATIONS: The Struggle for Real Control Over the Virtual World

The real world is involved in a battle for control over the virtual world, one of the central issues to be dealt with at the Nov. 16-18 World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) in the Tunisian capital.

PAKISTAN: Cheap, Clean Energy Blowing in the Wind

Till about seven months back, the village of Ghulam Muhammad Goth, north of this port city, had no electricity. ''Now our village seems alive even after sunset, till almost midnight,'' says a beaming 18-year old Perween.

/UPDATE*/DISARMAMENT: Iran’s Nuclear Dispute Sparks East-West Rivalry

At the height of the Cold War in the 1950s and 1960s, the United States and the former Soviet Union jealously safeguarded their own global political and military interests by vetoing each other's resolutions in the most powerful body at the United Nations: the Security Council.

POLITICS: China’s Nuclear Policy in Iran, N. Korea Gets Critical

As North Korea ups the stakes in a poker game of nuclear negotiations and Iran faces a showdown at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) this week, China's policy of avoiding clear-cut choices over support for countries, considered international outlaws by the United States, is reaching a critical point.

SINGAPORE: Futuristic Water Management on Tap

Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong believes that the island country's water dependency on mainland Malaysia has been a blessing in disguise which has helped turn ''vulnerability into strength''.

ENVIRONMENT: The Dawn of the Hypercane?

The number of super-powerful storms like Hurricane Katrina has nearly doubled and there will be even more in the future as the world's oceans continue to warm, scientists say.

EDUCATION-SOUTH AFRICA: From Blackboard to SMARTboard

The electronic board in front of the class flickers, and a periodic table is projected onto the screen. "Do you all know what this is?" booms a voice from the loud speaker. "Yes!" the students chorus, as any typical class would.

ENVIRONMENT: Why Is the Ozone Hole Growing?

A huge ozone hole has developed over Antarctica for the second year running, exposing southern Argentina and Chile to high levels of damaging ultraviolet radiation from the Sun.

TECHNOLOGY: African Software Gains Global Popularity

A decade ago, Ubuntu was a word that shook apartheid South Africa. Today, it is a word that may be keeping Bill Gates awake at night.

CHILE: Free Software Activists Criticise Low-Cost Computer Deal

The "My First PC" campaign launched by private companies in Chile with government support has drawn criticism from free software activists, who are working on their own initiatives to expand access to the Internet and the information society.

POLITICS-US: “We were briefing them way before landfall…”

Republican spin-meisters worked furiously this week to contain the political damage to U.S. President George W. Bush from what he concedes was the government's "unacceptable" response to Hurricane Katrina.