South Africa Rape Study: 1 In 4 Men Admit Rape

One in four men in South Africa admitted to raping someone and many confessed to attacking multiple victims, according to a new study conducted by the Medical Research Council and reported by the Mail and Guardian: Of those surveyed, 28% said they had raped a woman or girl, and 3% said they had raped a man or boy. Almost half who said they had carried out a rape admitted they had done so more than once, with 73% saying they had carried out their first assault before the age of 20. Full Story : Imnotamonster.com…

NASA photos reveal destruction of 99% of rainforest park in Rwanda

Satellite images released by NASA show nearly complete destruction of Rwanda’s Gishwati Forest between 1986 and 2001. Deforestation of the forest reserve is largely the result of subsistence harvesting and cultivation by refugees in the aftermath of the country’s 1994 genocide. Overall only 600 hectares of Gishwati’s original 100,000 hectares of forest remain, a loss of 99.4 percent. Full Story : Mongabay.com….

Beehive fence deters elephant raiders

A fence made out of beehives wired together has been shown to significantly reduce crop raids by elephants, Oxford University scientists report. The fence is constructed of log beehives suspended on poles beneath tiny thatched roofs (to keep off the sun). The hives are connected by eight metre lengths of fencing wire. Elephants avoid the hives and will attempt to push through the wire but this causes the hives to swing violently causing the elephants to fear an attack of angry bees. Full Story : Insciences.org…..

Fifty-five whales stranded on S.African beach

About 55 whales were stranded on a beach near Cape Town on Saturday and high waves were hampering efforts by rescue teams to get them back into the water. Volunteers and marine scientists worked to save the whales shortly after the adults and calves first came ashore in bad weather at 1:30 a.m. EDT (0530 GMT), said Craig Lambinon, spokesman for the National Sea Rescue Institute (NSRI). Full Story : ScientificAmerican.com…….

Water Crisis Leading to Wife Abuse in Some Areas

In the Kamuli District in southeastern Uganda, women have to travel particularly long distances to gather water now that water scarcity has hit the region. The problem is that requirement clashes with some cultural issues, namely that husbands attribute the women being gone so long with love affairs and other indiscretions, and that leads straight into domestic violence. Full Story : TreeHugger.com……

African Tribe populated rest of the World

Research by geneticists and archaeologists has allowed them to trace the origins of modern homo sapiens back to a single group of people who managed to cross from the Horn of Africa and into Arabia. From there they went on to colonise the rest of the world. Genetic analysis of modern day human populations in Europe, Asia, Australia, North America and South America have revealed that they are all descended from these common ancestors. Full Story: Telegraph.co.uk….

South Africa peace event put off after Dalai Lama ban

A South African peace conference of Nobel laureates has been postponed after the government’s decision to deny a visa to Tibet’s spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, organizers said on Tuesday. Several Nobel peace prize winners had threatened to boycott the event over the visa ban, but the government said it was standing by its decision. Local media said the visa was refused after pressure from China, a big investor and trade partner. Full Story : Reuters.com……..

African Union suspends Madagascar

Madagascar was suspended from the African Union and threatened with sanctions Friday, days after the army-backed toppling of the president, as the new government insisted no coup had taken place. Rajoelina suspended parliament on Thursday, a few days after soldiers backed by tanks stormed Ravalomanana’s offices, forced him to step down and handed power over to the opposition leader. Madagascar, or Republic of Madagascar, is an island nation in the Indian Ocean off the southeastern coast of Africa. The main island, also called Madagascar, is the fourth-largest island in the world.

@ a glance : Somalia: Three Pirates Die After Releasing Saudi Super Tanker

Three Somali pirates died and two others are missing after their boat capsized in the coast off Somalia on Friday evening, witnesses said on Saturday. Full Story : Allafrica.com……

@ a glance : Ethiopia: Troops leaving Somalia

Ethiopia says it has started to pull its troops out of Somalia. Full Story : Aljazeera.net…..

Don’t send Indian Troops : Congo to UN

The Democratic Republic of Congo has written to the United Nations asking not to send any more Indian peacekeeping troops to reinforce the peace keeping mission. Indian peacekeepers have been accused of sexual abuse over the last few years. The UN has 17,000 peacekeepers in DR Congo, supposed to monitor a 2003 peace deal. DR Congo is rich in minerals such as gold, tin and coltan.

U.N. chief Ask Rich nations to help Africa

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged the world’s rich nations to spend $72 billion a year to help Africa to fight poverty, improve health and ensure universal primary education. He pointed out the estimated $267 billion spent last year on agricultural subsidies by the world’s richest nations. In 2006, 34 of the 50 nations on the UN list of least developed countries are in Africa.

Google Hosts Africa Conference

“Building the conversation between Silicon Valley and Africa.”, is the mission statement of BarCamp Africa. The organizers expects grass roots changes can be made by building awareness using this event. Google has offered to host this gathering on their beautiful Mountain View campus. What is a BarCamp? It is a gathering to share and learn in an open environment with discussions, demos and interaction among participants. BarCampAfrica 2008 will be held on Oct 11th.

Rwanda Distributes XO laptops

Rwanda launched the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) program with the distribution of 5,000 laptops. The laptops are currently being sold for US$188, but OLPC is working to drive down costs through a give-one, get-one-free program. Nearly 100 teachers have already completed training by the Kigali Institute of Science and Technology in the use of specialized OLPC XO-1 computers. The organization has also provided Ethiopia with 5,000 laptops, and South Africa and Ghana have each received at least 100 laptops. Rwanda is one of the poorest countries in the world with a GDP of $238.30.

Internet to Africa, Google Takes Initiative

O3b Project, named after the “other 3bn” people, is an ambitious project which provide internet access to 3 billion people in Africa and other emerging market. The project will be backed by some global giants. John Malone, the cable television magnate, HSBC and Google join hands to to set up O3b Networks. The estimated cost of the project is $750 million and when its completed cost of bandwidth will be reduced by 95% in those areas. As the first stage of the project, 16 low-earth orbit satellites will be ordered from Thales Alenia Space, the French aerospace group.

New Habitat Inside Earth

Researchers have discovered a unique star shaped bacterium living 1.7 km below the Earth’s surface. This bacteria was discovered in South African platinum mine. There are many types of unknown species live in the deep subsurface of Earth, but large scale drilling projects needed to discover them. With the help of ultra-deep mines of South Africa, researchers are getting a glimpse into this unique habitat. Scientists from the University of Western Ontario and Princeton University have gained access to many previously undiscovered microbial communities in South African Northam Platinum mine.

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