They bred four crows in captivity and found all the birds were able to make tools from twigs without being taught.

"We show that hand-raised juvenile New Caledonian crows spontaneously manufacture and use tools, without any contact with adults of their species or any prior demonstration by humans," said Alex Kacelnick, of O?ford University in England.

The crows — three males and one female — were raised in artificial nests and then transferred to aviaries that contained a variety of twigs and food hidden in crevices.

Two of the birds were shown by their human foster parents how to pry food out of tiny spaces with the twigs but the other birds were not.

"All four crows developed the ability to use twig tools," Kacelnick and his colleagues said in a report in the science journal Nature.

The tutored birds watched the tool demonstrations but the scientists found no difference in their skills and those of the other two birds.

"In light of our findings, it is possible that the high level of skill observed in wild adult crows is not socially acquired," said Kacelnick.

He and his team believe the crows could be a good example to study the interaction between inherited traits and social learning during the development of tool technology.

The protesters took to the streets at the weekend to paste mock tickets on the windscreens of the `Chelsea Tractors’ parked in the heart of the shopping area.
Campaigners from the Alliance Against Urban 4x4s slapped the bogus tickets on gas-guzzling Jeeps, Range Rovers and even an American Humvee which declared "Poor Vehicle Choice" and "Axles of Evil".

They looked like parking fines with a yellow and black design but on closer inspection turned out to be leaflets issued as part of a nationwide campaign to drive huge four-wheel-drive cars back to the countryside.

The first to get a ticket was a Jeep Cherokee parked outside the Central Library. Hundreds more followed, each with a ticket that declared: "Dirty and dangerous car (as you should know)."

The spoof ticket claimed only five per cent of 4x4s are ever taken off road, off-roaders only give you 12 miles per gallon and sends twice as much carbon-monoxide into the atmosphere.

Rockfalls
It also claimed 4x4s often handle poorly because they are badly-designed and are twice as likely to kill other road users or pedestrians than smaller motors.
On the back , the ticket suggests 4×4 owners had been conned: "Be honest with yourself. You got a bit over-excited when you saw the advert where the shiny 4×4 dodges Himalayan rockfalls while chasing lions in the Serengeti. But how do you feel now? In reality, urban 4x4s handle very poorly, are far less economical to run than ordinary family cars and are far more dangerous – to the other road users, to the people inside and to the health of everyone around them."

Mark Griffiths, who was ticketed after he parked his 4.4 litre Range Rover in the city centre with his partner and child, said: "If you have a family you need a vehicle this size to cart all the clobber around because you can’t get it in a small vehicles. 4x4s are a very suitable way to be going about your daily activities."

Campaign spokesman Dave Coleman, a 41-year-old business consultant from Lymm, who drives a BMW diesel, said: "Too many people are driving what are basically pieces of modified agricultural machinery through our crowded streets because they think they are a fashion accessory.

"Most 4×4 drivers don’t want to be selfish but don’t realise the impact these vehicles have or how widely they are resented and ridiculed."
What do you think of 4x4s? Have your say

In November 2004 the investment basis for the construction of the Cherkessk – Adler highway was submitted for the state environmental review to "Rosprirodnadzor" (Russia’s Service on Control of Natural Use Management). The Damkhurts – Krasnaya Polyana part of this road is going to be built through the territory of the Caucasian Biosphere Reserve (World Natural Heritage Site "West Caucasus") and virgin mountain areas bordering it. Building owner of the project is "The Department of Federal Highways in Karachay-Circassian Republic". This project is not accepted for carrying out the state environmental review yet, but it may happen soon.

Not so long ago there were plans to construct the highway through the Caucasian Reserve (Lagonaki Plateau) on Maikop – Dagomys route. Fortunately public protest campaign against this construction was successful and this project was not put into practice. But Adygeya Republic authorities are still planning this road-building, so the danger is not eliminated completely. And now a much more dangerous threat of road construction through the Caucasian Reserve is coming from Karachay -Circassian Republic authorities. The government of this North Caucasian republic, as well as Adygeya’s authorities, wants to get a direct outlet to the Black Sea coast. So Karachay – Circassia leaders have been designing the Cherkessk – Adler highway since 2001. But the only direct way from Karachay-Circassia to the Russia’s Black Sea coast lies through the Caucasian Reserve. This project can severely damage both – the integrity of the Caucasian Biosphere Reserve and its natural complexes.

Nine options for this highway route were considered within the framework of the investment basis for the Cherkessk-Adler highway construction. Karachay-Cherkessia promoted the 6th option most actively. According to the promoted option, the highway is planned on the route: Cherkessk?- Psemen – Rozhkao – Damkhurts – Damkhurts River valley – Tsakhvoa River valley – Kardyvach Lake – Engelmanova Polyana – Krasnaya Polyana – Adler. Total length of the highway on this route is 313 kilometers. Construction of two tunnels with the total length of 12,6 kilometers is planned. So the highway is going to be built on extremely valuable areas in southern part of the Caucasian Reserve near the border of Russia with Georgia (Abkhazia). Virgin areas in both of Damkhurts River and Mzymta River valleys, bordering the Reserve, will also suffer from this.

Here the highway lies also on a protected areas: Sochi National Park, Sochi Zakaznik (wildlife refuge) and Damkhurts Zakaznik. As a result, if this project is realized, huge areas of the West Caucasus wilderness will be deeply influenced by intense anthropogenic impact.

Caucasian Reserve, as well as other unique natural complexes of Russia, is now in great danger. In the last few years, illegal but profitable for authorities projects were widely practiced in Russia and Northern Caucasus in particular. These projects are usually put into practice even despite the heavy opposition from the public.

But the main danger now is that even laws can be easily changed, Deputies of the governmental party "United Russia", make up the majority in the State Duma (Parliament of the Russian Federation) and are changing laws one after another. So it is quite possible that Russian authorities might even change the federal legislation making it possible to stretch the highway through the Reserve.

The areas of the Caucasus Reserve where the road construction is planned are a part of the World Natural Heritage. This fact will hardly become a serious obstacle for those behind this project, unless the international community will raise a question at the highest level about the inadmissibility of this construction.

This problem is very important and calls for active actions from all people and organizations concerned on the conservation of wild nature of The Caucasian Reserve. Russian environmental organizations are starting a public campaign against the construction of the Damkhurts – Krasnaya Polyana highway.

As part of this campaign Environmental Watch on North Caucasus with the support of other local NGOs and also Greenpeace Russia and Biodiversity Conservation Center is preparing to carry out a public environmental review of this project.

To study the exact nature and extent of devastation India’s most prestigious scientific research vessel, Sagar Sampada, is now on a ‘tsunami expedition’ to the country’s east and west coasts, which were ravaged by the killer waves.

Sagar Sampada is a multi-purpose fisheries and oceanographic research vessel that has been carrying out survey of India’s Exclusive Economic Zone since 1984. It is maintained by the Department of Ocean Development.

* Despatches from TN: Uncivil war?r

The state-of-the-art research ship sailed out of the Kochi harbour in Kerala last week to make an on-the-spot assessment of how the tsunami impacted the marine wealth, the sea bottom and its living resources. The ship will also collect data on sea organisms, sediment samples and check hydrographic parameters at the tsunami-hit coasts.

A team of 12 top researchers, oceanographers and scientists from across the country, headed by Dr R Damodaran, former dean of the Department of Marine Sciences of the Cochin University of Science and Technology, are on board to conduct the studies.

The Centre for Marine Living Resources and Ecology and the National Institute of Oceanography is coordinating the expedition.
.
"It is the first major research project to understand how the sea behaved during the tsunami. We will study the current state of marine resources and hydrographic characters of the sea, including dissolved oxygen content, turbidity, salinity and nutrients," Dr Damodaran told rediff.com before he boarded the ship for the expedition.

* Is this how the UN will help the victims?

The vessel is currently collecting data on the west coast, especially in Kochi, Kollam, Thiruvananthapuram and Kanyakumari. It will then move on to the worst hit seacoast in the east, like Nagapattinam, Cuddalore, Chennai, Krishnapattinam and Kavali.

The data generated by the research vessel will be compared with those obtained from studies conducted by the ship along India’s Exclusive Economic Zone in the sea.

Interestingly, the research vessel had come to the Kochi harbour from Colombo just a day before the tsunami struck It had gone to Colombo for some major repairs.

* Welcome to Tsunami Junction

Reports said that the office space allotted for the scientists and crew of Sagar Sampada in Colombo had been ravaged by the tsunami.

Sagar Sampada has been carrying out oceanographic and fisheries survey in the Indian Exclusive Economic Zone for many years now.

It had participated in a 75-day successful Krill Assessment Cruise during December 1995 to March 1996, covering 33 sampling stations and making 16 trial hauls in the southern ocean for collecting data on distribution and abundance of krill and other living resources.

* Cellular Jail’s wall damaged

In the last few years, the vessel has conducted 10 major cruises covering a total track length of 18,531 nautical miles, both in the Arabian Sea and Bay of Bengal, to study living resources and the oceanographic factors influencing their distribution.

The Sequel, whose prototype was unveiled on Sunday at the American International Auto Show in Detroit, is regarded as a car unlike any other since the only thing its exhaust emits is water vapour.

The vehicle promises to transform the car industry worldwide with a direct consequence on the planet’s ecological balance.

For a company that makes the monstrous, gas-guzzling and obscenely masculine Hummer, the Sequel is considered an attempt to change the image of an auto company producing some of the least fuel-efficient cars.

But environmental groups are not buying GM’s spin saying the company has no real plans to address the problem of fuel-efficiency in the immediate future.

GM had earlier introduced other hydrogen-fuelled cars such as the Hy-wire. The company says it will be able to mass produce fuel cell cars by 2010.

"The technologies embodied in Sequel, such as fuel cells, by-wire and wheel hub motors, have developed so fast that GM has been able to double the range and halve the 0-60 mph acceleration time, compared to current fuel cell vehicles, in less than three years," according to Larry Burns, GM vice president of research and development and planning.

"Three years ago, our chairman and CEO, Rick Wagoner, challenged us to completely rethink the automobile," Burns said. "The Autonomy and Hy-wire concepts were the outgrowth of that challenge – a revolution in how vehicles would be designed, built and used in the future. But they were concepts. Today, with Sequel, the vision is real – not yet affordable, but do-able."

Simply put hydrogen fuel cell cars use cells that separate hydrogen atoms into electrons and protons, using the electrons to generate a current. All that it emits are hydrogen protons that combine with the oxygen in the air to produce water rather than dangerous pollutants released by the gasoline-powered cars.

Although fuel cells have been around for more than a century, the problem has been scalability. Till recently, carmakers were not able to put them under the hood of a passenger car since it required a much larger room.

"Sequel embodies GM’s vision of reinventing the automobile with a fusion of technologies that includes advanced materials, electronic controls, computer software and advanced propulsion," the company said in a press release.

"GM’s goal," Burns explained, "is to design and validate a fuel cell propulsion system by 2010 that is competitive with current internal combustion systems on durability and performance, and that ultimately can be built at scale affordably."

"We’ve achieved remarkable gains in range and acceleration by using our fuel cell system technology that exists today," Burns said. "That’s a real breakthrough. For anyone tracking the viability of fuel cell vehicles, this is encouraging news."

Sequel, about the size of a Cadillac SRX, travels up to 480 km on its hydrogen supply, and accelerates to 60 mph in less than 10 seconds. Current-generation fuel cell vehicles have a range of between 170 and 250 miles and cover 0-60 mph in between 12-16 seconds, depending upon whether a battery is used.

Resolution for a Living Danube and Navigation
In contrast to many other Europe?n rivers, the Danube, including the tributaries, continues to have great ecological value, with unique biodiversity and great potential for ecological improvement. Additional benefits of these natural river courses are flood prevention, self purification, drinking water, forestry, fishery and tourism. In the framework of the Trans-European Network for Transport, or TEN-T, the Danube is projected to be used more intensively for inland shipping. So-called ?bottlenecks?, shallow waters usually of great ecological value, were identified in 2003 as part of the TEN-T revision and are to be modified, deepened and destroyed. According to the European Commission, more than 65% of the so-called ?bottlenecks? are existing or potential Natura 2000 sites. Also potentially affected by the measures are 3 National Parks, 11 Ramsar sites, and one world heritage site. With this, the planned measures for shipping threaten the very ecological basis of Europe?s lifeline. At the same time, however, we see an opportunity to permanently improve the situation on the Danube and its floodplains through the introduction of careful and ecologically sensitive shipping projects. We NGO representatives of the Danube countries call on the governments of the Danube countries especially the Ministers responsible for water and environment as well as the representatives of the European Commission to ensure that:
� the principle of non-deterioration (Water Framework Directive ? WFD) is upheld. The hydro-morphological system of the Danube must not be negatively affected by shipping projects;
� the improvement demand of the WFD is applied. For all shipping and other river engineering projects, there must be clear ecological improvements (e.g. riverbed widening, reconnection of sidearms to the main channel, moving back dykes);
� the principle of true public participation is comprehensively applied. That means the involvement of all relevant stakeholders, including affected communities and environmental NGOs in the planning and decision making processes from the beginning;
� no new depth requirements beyond existing ones (Danube Commission; AGN) are applied and existing depth recommendations have to be assessed in terms of ecological and economical requirements;
� the principle of cost recovery (internalisation of costs) and cost effectiveness, according to WFD, is applied to economic, resource and environmental costs of the infrastructure development plans;
� the Commission delegates an European Environmental Co-ordinator for the whole EU-TEN process to safeguard and co-ordinate the environmental protection and rehabilitation tasks of the projects and the whole river corridor involved. He/she should also revise the present priorities of the process and projects involved.
Furthermore, we call upon the future government of the Ukraine as well as the European Commission to do all they can to prevent further construction works on the Ukrainian Danube-Black Sea Canal and to restore the damage that has already been done.

Agreed by:
WWF
Bund Naturschutz Bayern
BI Donaufreunde
Ecopravo-Lviv
Bürgeraktion ?Rettet die Donau?
European Nature Heritage Fund
(Euronatur)
European Rivers Network (ERN)
Makk – Hungarian environmental
economics centre
Danube Circle / Association of Danube
Settlements / Ecoplan
Eco Counselling Centre Galati
Greenpeace
GLOBAL 2000
VIRUS – Umweltbureau
Green Action / Zelena Akcija
LENA ? citizen group network
Ecological Movement of Moldova
Danube Environmental Forum
Eco Counselling Europe
BI Rettet die Lobau ? Natur statt Beton

Aims
� To gather youth representatives from different countries from all over the World to share their vision about Peace issues.
� To increase the awareness among participants and local population about Peace Actions in the world.
� To exchange working methods and perspectives on Peace issues.
� To propose new actions and projects that increase cooperation among people from different countries

Participant’s Profile
We are expecting youth representatives from all over the World with some experience in youth work, peace actions or global issues. Aged preferable among 24 and 39 years.
The total number of guest will be 70 from outside Spain plus 15 from Spain.

Participants
We are expecting active youth representatives from all over the World with some experience in youth work, peace actions or global issues. Aged preferable among 24 and 39 years.
The total number of guest will be 70 from outside Spain plus 15 from Spain.

Financial Conditions
Participation fee is 50 Euro for EU countries, USA, Canada, Japan and Corea; and 25 Euro for the rest of the World. You will be asked to transfer your money once you are confirmed as participant.

Board and lodging during the Conference will be covered for all participants.
Medical and travel insurance is not covered. Participants are strongly recommended to arrange travel insurance during their stay in Spain.

Financial help. We can offer some travel grants for some participants. There will be 15 travel grants (250 Euro each) for participants in disadvantage economical situation. In case you want to apply for this grant, please fill the specific form you will find in ?applications?.

Full Information and Application Form at: [url=http://www.waslala.net/conference]www.waslala.net/conference[/url]

At the Indonesia aid conference? Mr Annan said there was "a race against time" to prevent another sharp rise in the death toll, now over 150,000.
Global pledges exceed $3bn but promises have not always come good in the past.

The EU is the latest international body to offer increased aid, pledging 100m euros ($132m) to the immediate effort.

Secretary of State Colin Powell said the group – which includes India, Australia and Japan – had served its purpose and would now work with the UN.

Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said in Jakarta he would also seek the European Parliament’s approval for an additional 350m euros ($464m) for long-term reconstruction.

Meanwhile the US said it was disbanding what it called the core group of nations formed to tackle the crisis.

The BBC’s Laura Trevelyan at the UN says officials who had feared that the core group would duplicate the UN’s efforts will be quietly relieved by this move.

World and local leaders, aid groups and international organisations are attending the Jakarta conference.

Also on the agenda is temporary debt-relief for the Indian Ocean nations affected by 26 December’s disaster and the establishment of a tsunami warning system in the area.

In other developments in the region:

* BBC correspondent Andrew Harding discovers a town in the Indonesian province of Aceh, Teunom, as yet not reached by aid workers

* India builds emergency helicopter pads in the Andaman Islands to speed up aid delivery to remote areas

* UN relief co-ordinator Jan Egeland warns governments and rebel groups in affected areas – specifically in Aceh, Sri Lanka and Somalia – to keep the peace to allow aid work to go ahead

* Saudi Arabia launches a major TV fundraising event for tsunami victims

* The Thai navy starts surveying coastal areas affected by the tsunami with a view to updating shipping charts.

Generosity praised

Mr Annan said the UN had drawn up a "focused set of programmes" tending to the immediate needs of the survivors of the tsunami.

But he warned that the number of fatalities could double if aid did not reach survivors soon.

"There are daunting logistical constraints. But they are not insurmountable. It is a race against time," he told world leaders.

The programmes – costing a total of $977m – would include $215m towards food, $222m toward shelter and $122m towards healthcare.

The biggest single recipient would be Indonesia, the worst-hit country, which would receive $371m of the immediate aid, with the remainder spread across the rest of the region.

Although the UN has praised global generosity in responding to the disaster, aid agencies warn that in past disasters, pledges have not always been honoured.

Just more than a year ago donors promised Iran more than $1bn to assist with the Bam earthquake disaster. Iran complains that only $17.5m ever arrived.

Early warning

Other pledges may come as loans, in services and equipment or be earmarked for long-term reconstruction purposes.

There has been strong support at the meeting for the establishment of an early warning system to alert people to the dangers of any future tsunami.

Mr Annan said prevention and early warning systems must become a priority, and Indonesian officials said a warning system like that in the Pacific Ocean should be set up in the Indian Ocean.

<img src="%%dir[1]%%_40677011_indon_quake_map4_416.gif" border="0" alt="image" name="image" hspace="5" vspace="5" align="left" width="416" height="252" />Also up for discussion will be temporarily relieving the nations affected of their international debt repayments.

Canada remains the only donor to declare a unilateral moratorium on debt repayments, but Japan says it is willing to do so and other countries indicate they would support the idea.

1. Indonesia: 94,081
2. Sri Lanka: 30,513
3. India (inc Andaman and Nicobar Is): 9,682
4. Thailand: 5,288
5. Somalia: 298?
6. Burma: 64
7. Maldives: 82
8. Malaysia: 67
9. Tanzania: 10
10. Seychelles: 1
11. Bangladesh: 2
12. Kenya: 1