Friday, August 26th, 2011
The results of Europe’s largest chip reader research project are in, and things look good for the future of electronic identification (ID) documents in the EU. An outcome of the BIOP@SS project, the results lay the technical foundations for such documents, helping the region move towards electronic communication and away from paper correspondence that burdens
Friday, August 26th, 2011
The WOW project is funded by the GEF (Global Environment Facility), The German Government and several other donors, and it is implemented by UNEP as a joint effort by leading global conservation organizations and partners such as Wetlands International, BirdLife International, the AEWA, the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands, and UNEP-WCMC (World Conservation Monitoring Centre) and
Friday, August 26th, 2011
As World Water Week (21 – 29 August) gets under way, Development Commissioner Andris Piebalgs reaffirms the EU’s commitment to meeting the Millennium Development Goal pledge of halving the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation by 2015:
Friday, August 26th, 2011
Two major Arctic shipping routes have opened as summer sea ice melts, European satellites have found. Data recorded by the European Space Agency’s (Esa) Envisat shows both Canada’s Northwest Passage and Russia’s Northern Sea Route open simultaneously. This summer’s melt could break the 2007 record for the smallest area of sea ice since the satellite era began
Friday, August 26th, 2011
In Kenya, a Chinese-manufactured Android phone has taken the mobile market by storm. Starting in September, frugal Germans will be able to buy a similar discount Android from the same company — for a hundred euros. Read More
Thursday, August 25th, 2011
The failure of the Progress M-12M cargo ship launch on Wednesday may raise questions about the future of the Russian space program, as the Soyuz carrier is currently the only rocket used to supply the ISS. The recovery process and search for the crashed cargo has been hampered at the moment by severe bad weather in
Thursday, August 25th, 2011
Bulgaria’s Cabinet has declared the road from the Danube city of Ruse on the Romanian border to the Makaza Pass on the Greece border to be a project “of national importance” in a long-awaited move. The Ruse-Makaza road linking Romania and Greece through Central Bulgaria is supposed to be part of the Pan-European Transport Corridor No. 9 leading from Helsinki, the Baltic states, Moscow, Kiev, and Bucharest to the Greek port
Thursday, August 25th, 2011
Alcoa is celebrating the 15th anniversary of the Alumar Environmental Park in São Luis, Brazil, located on the site of the Alumar complex, one of the world’s largest primary aluminum and alumina facilities. This ecological sanctuary, which covers 1,800 hectares (4,447 acres), is an example of Alcoa’s “Smelter in the Park” model of industrial and environmental
Thursday, August 25th, 2011
Australia’s parliament yesterday endorsed the world’s first national scheme that regulates the creation and trade of carbon credits from farming and forestry, complementing government plans to put a price on carbon emissions from mid-2012. The laws, the first major bills passed by the government with the Greens’ support in the Senate since the Greens took the
Wednesday, August 24th, 2011
Leading water service providers in the country have been urged to plough back their revenue into catchment protection activities. According to the Tana Water Service Provider chairman Charles Muthuri, the water service providers should resuscitate some of its income to activities such as educating the community on importance of planting trees. “According to research, it is
