Bees are vital -- because of their pollinating in the fields -- to any nation's food production and to European agriculture worth €22 billion annually. That's why Europe has voted to enforce the world's first continent-wide ban on common insecticides linked to serious harm in bees.
Squadrons of bumblebees are being deployed in the UK in a novel attempt to prevent grey mold from ruining the crop of summer strawberries. The bees are routed via a one-way system in their hive through a tray of harmless fungus spores which, when delivered to flowers, ensure that the grey mold cannot take hold as the fruit grows.
The ban is being hailed as a "historic" conservational victory for honeybees and the environment.
A huge new research facility is using resources abundant in the desert –salt and sand– to grow "super plants" for the production of renewable jet fuel.
The BBC reports that the United Arab Emirates is drafting a law that will allow laborers to form trade unions and pursue collective bargaining.
Taking one baby step on the path to general election polling for all, the United Arab Emirates, a Persian Gulf state that was created in 1971, held its first election Saturday.
The World Bank approved details to implement the 2005 debt relief initiative, which will cancel the debt of some of the worldí¢â¬â¢s poorest countries starting onJuly 1, 2006, at the start of the Bankí¢â¬â¢s fiscal year.
An agreement signed May 22 will commit $215 million for expanded protection of the Amazon rainforest. The move will guarantee funds over the next two decades
Zakouma National Park in Chad, renowned for its free roaming herds of African elephants, fell victim to a frenzy of poaching between 2000-2010. But their numbers are now on the rise again. Thanks to an overhaul of anti-poaching strategy, there has not been elephant killed inside the 19,000-square-mile park for nearly three years.
Women are making inroads in the government of Bahrain, a tiny Persian Gulf country that first gave women the right to vote and stand as candidates in national elections after the constitution was amended in 2002.
A towering oak tree in the middle of a grassy soccer field in Estonia was named the European Tree of the Year after 200,000 people cast their votes in February.
A valley in Bulgaria's mountains, for decades known for making AK-47 rifles, now has blossomed into a supplier of organic rose oil for beauty products, reviving a centuries' old industry. Every morning at dawn hundreds of villagers hustle through fields of rose bushes to pick fresh blooms still damp with morning dew.