On August 3, 2007, East Timor designated its first national park, just five years after attaining independence from its occupier of 25 years, Indonesia. Conservationists applauded the move for its efforts to protect some of the nation’s endangered species while promoting tourism to the troubled Asian island. Nino Konis Santana National Park encompasses 305,415 acres […]
Countries celebrated or shared disappointment as the seven new wonders of the world were announced on July 7. The contest, the brainchild of Swiss filmmaker and adventurer, Bernard Webber, encouraged people from across the globe to vote for their favorite site from 21 options. Voting took place via voicemail, SMS, or email. Almost 100 million […]
In early July, the San Francisco International Program (SFIP), with the sponsorship of Amnesty International, Global Exchange and other organizations, hosted its 2007 Alumni Leadership Awards Ceremony to celebrate past program participants. According to SFIP, these people are making “significant contributions to promote peace, democracy, and equality in their home countries.” The San Francisco International […]
In a demonstration of tightening controls over religious freedom in Tibet, the Chinese People’s Armed Police (PAP) destroyed a 30-foot high statue of the Buddhist figure Guru Rinpoche, or Padmasambhava, in Samye Monastery, the oldest monastery in Tibet. Guru Rinpoche is worshipped by Tibetan and Chinese Buddhists alike as the founder of Buddhism in Tibet […]
Many would be hard pressed to find Suriname on a world map. Surely, the estimated 12,000 working in illegal, wildcat gold mining in the isolated Amazonian rainforest of the northern South American nation would probably prefer to keep it that way. However, anonymity became more difficult last month. Researchers from Conservation International put the country […]
China announced plans to build a paved highway to Mount Everest to facilitate the journey of the Olympic torch to the top of the peak prior to the 2008 Bejiing Games. The current road to base camp–a rough path–will become “a blacktop highway fenced by undulating guardrails,” according to the Xinhua News Agency.The ambitious project […]
Saturday, May 26th, 2007, marked the tenth anniversary of National Sorry Day in Australia. However, those who have waited patiently for an official apology to Aboriginals from Prime Minister John Howard and the Commonwealth (federal) Government of Australia are still waiting. In Spring 1997, the damning conclusions of the “Bringing Them Home” report – which […]
The delicate balance of life on Ecuador’s Galapagos Islands-whose unique, isolated ecosystem helped inspire Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution-is at serious risk. Mass tourism, invasive species, and ineffective enforcement of environmental regulations are the major threats facing these iconic islands, according to a UNESCO fact-finding mission. Located 620 miles off the Pacific coast of Ecuador, […]
Hidden in the remote north Arctic are the Svalbard Islands, an archipelago that is part of the Kingdom of Norway, and which contains the northernmost permanently inhabited settlements in the world. Though not heavily visited, the islands receive some tourists to view reindeer, seal, walrus, polar bears and according to Wikitravel “to experience Arctic nature […]
