Tuesday, July 26th, 2011
Africa’s first specialist rural microfinance fund supporting fair trade and organic small business, FEFISOL, the European Solidarity Financing Fund for Africa, was launched earlier today by the European Investment Bank, Agence Française de Développement and a broad grouping of development bodies, social investors and microfinance service providers. The EUR 15 million FEFISOL fund will provide
Tuesday, July 26th, 2011
This study used an affordable ground-based portable LiDAR system to provide an understanding of the structural differences between old-growth and secondary-growth Southeastern pine. It provided insight into the strengths and weaknesses in the structural determination of portable systems in contrast to airborne LiDAR systems. Portable LiDAR height profiles and derived metrics and indices (e.g., canopy
Tuesday, July 26th, 2011
Mika and Rafel Serrano are not your typical farmers. They own just a small piece of land and no livestock at all, but they are still able to live off their farm. The secret to success for many small growers like the Serranos is the sale of produce directly to consumers, without letting intermediary vendors
Tuesday, July 26th, 2011
Land mafias are once again out to sell plots of land without original title deeds to citizens for amounts as little as SR10,000. The reappearance of land thieves has been reported at a time when the concerned authorities are struggling to tackle encroachments. They are currently concentrated outside the residential areas of Makkah and Jeddah, precisely
Monday, July 25th, 2011
Peru and Germany have signed a financial cooperation agreement thereby the European country agrees to give Peru 5 million euros to finance a biodiversity protection project. The agreement was signed by Peruvian Foreign Minister Jose Antonio Garcia Belaunde and German Ambassador to Peru, Christoph Müller. The signing of this document shows the willingness of Germany
Monday, July 25th, 2011
China’s leading e-commerce company Alibaba said Friday it will launch a mobile operating system, joining industry giants Google and Apple in providing software for smartphones. The group will also unveil its first smartphone at the launch, to be held next week in Beijing, Alibaba spokeswoman Florence Shih told AFP by telephone from Hong Kong. Read More
Monday, July 25th, 2011
With confusion over number of households in the city, the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) is contemplating to use geographic information system (GIS) to map all assessed properties in Greater Hyderabad. On a pilot basis, one block will be selected for GIS mapping and later it would be extended to the entire city to bring all
Monday, July 25th, 2011
The universities of Leiden, Delft and Rotterdam are planning to merge, theNRC reports on Friday, quoting university sources. The paper says the universities were planning to make the announcement at the opening of the new academic year in September. The merged organisation, which will be known as Leiden University, will have 55,000 students and 11,500 staff, excluding people
Monday, July 25th, 2011
Germany may miss its commitment to build a feeder line to the monumental Gotthard Base Tunnel in Switzerland, the Baden-Württemberg transport minister says. He surprised the Swiss by claiming that funds for the rail approach were tied to another controversial rail project — Stuttgart 21. Read More
Monday, July 25th, 2011
Maersk Oil, a division of A.P. Moller Maersk, has completed its acquisition of SK do Brasil Ltda., an oil exploration and drilling company based in Rio de Janeiro, for some 12.4 billion kroner, the company announced. As part of the deal, which was originally announced in December 2010 but has now received necessary approval by the
