Poachers in Rwanda have killed two of the world's last remaining mountain gorillas, a critically endangered species, in an attempt to capture and sell their young, Rwandan wildlife conservation officials said.

A new executive agency, which will manage the forest resources in the country on behalf of the government, will be established under the recently launched Tanzania Forest Conservation and Management Project (TFCMP).

With their lands facing the prospect of devastating floods, droughts and other disasters linked to global climate change, participants from 46 of the world's 49 least developed countries met at a workshop last week in Dhaka, Bangladesh, to hone national plans to alleviate such crises and seek international support for these efforts.

New research has shown that deserts in Burkino Faso are shrinking, and that dunes are retreating right across the Sahel region on the southern edge of the Sahara desert.

Although modern African literature and music have become well known in the West, through the contributions of such famous authors as Chinua Achebe and Bessie Head and such popular musicians as King Sunny Ade and Ladysmith Black Mambazo, the continent's vast body of modern visual arts has been little explored. In New Currents, Ancient Rivers Jean Kennedy surveys African art of the last forty years, offering an expansive perspective on the visual arts of the continent. Just as ancient rivers flow through the modern African landscape, so too do the rituals and traditions of the past run deeply through modern African art. The past is able to coexist in vibrant synthesis with the present largely because of a critical constant in African culture, the acceptance of change.

Angola suffered the most landmine casualties in Southern Africa last year, with 660 people - most of them civilians - killed or injured, according to a new report by the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL). The report said more than 34 million stockpiled antipersonnel mines have been destroyed by 61 states, including seven million in the past year.

Canada will contribute about US$ 900,000 for vital landmine clearance in Mozambique and to support landmine victims in Namibia. Susan Whelan, Canada's minister for international cooperation, made the announcement in Mozambique during a visit.

The Clinton Administration had promised the ratification of the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty by 2006. However, last year the Department of Defense, with input from the State Department and the National Security Council, recommended to President Bush that the US abandon all efforts toward signing the Treaty and banning landmines. Write to US politicians urging them to move forward with the banning of land mines.

Cracks opened Tuesday in the hull of a burning Italian cargo ship grounded offshore of the Greater St. Lucia Wetland Park on South Africa's east coast. An estimated 450 metric tons of oil have already spilled from the vessel into the waters near the country's first World Heritage Site, but so far the fragile wetland environment has been spared.

It is the elderly that suffer from the death of their children as a “significant proportion” of adults suffering AIDS return to their parents’ home shortly before they die. This is according to a survey in north-western Tanzania in 1991- 94 comparing the activities and wellbeing of the elderly in households before and after the death of a prime-aged adult with those of the elderly in households that did not experience the death of an adult.

Zimbabwean troops defending Democratic Republic of Congo's diamond capital, Mbuji Mayi, are due to return home Friday. A ceremony was held at the airport in the town to mark the imminent departure of the soldiers, which was delayed by a shortage of aircraft.

International scientists have called for urgent action to conserve the Guinean forest of West Africa, saying it is one of the world's top five biodiversity hot spots.

Genetic evidence extracted from elephant dung has revealed that a previously unknown type of elephant is roaming the African forests and plains. Biologists at the University of California, San Diego have used DNA to show that the elephants of west Africa are genetically distinct from the continent's two known elephant types.

The UK government has granted R330-million to the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry. This multi-donor effort has been pledged over five years to support the UK’s strategic plan to ensure the efficient management of water and forestry resources so that they benefit the poor.

It is now officially recognised by the World Health Organisation, that 80 percent of the people in poor economies rely on traditional medicine for their primary health care. In many countries, the ratio of orthodox medicine practitioners to the population is still very high. A recent research finding shows that resurgent enthusiasm for traditional medicine is leading to over-harvesting of plants from the wild for medicinal use.

Environment-related diseases and illnesses kill the equivalent of a jumbo jet full of children every 45 minutes, World Health Organisation director-general Dr Gro Brundtland says.

A week-long fire, which has razed 700 ha of the Kibira forest, in northwestern Burundi, was started by rebels who have been using the area as a stronghold for its attacks on government troops, news sources who have just visited the area said.

Africa's endangered western chimpanzee is the object of an urgent action plan to be announced September 13 by an international group of scientists and government officials meeting in Abidjan.

A full 10 percent of the land mass of the African country of Gabon will be set aside for a system of national parks, the nation's government announced last Wednesday. Gabon, which had no national park system until this week, contains some of the most pristine tropical rainforests on earth, home to gorillas, chimpanzees, forest elephants and a host of other wildlife.

If not for its oil, Angola would scarcely warrant a second look from most potential investors. Riven by Africa's longest postcolonial war, the country has distinguished itself mainly for poverty, corruption and, most recently, the threat of famine. But the blessings of geography and plentiful crude reserves have earned Angola increasing attention from the United States as Washington seeks to diversify sources of U.S. oil imports away from the volatile Middle East.