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IN BRIEF UGANDA Violent protests have taken place in Uganda against government

plans to give more than 7,000 hectares of the Mabira Forest to a sugar cane

company. The forest, which has been part of a national nature reserve since

1932, is home to several rare species, including the tit hylia bird, six

butterfl ies, a moth and a shrub, many of which are endemic to the forest.

Increased sugar production would boost jobs, export earnings and tax

revenue, said President Yoweri Museveni.

IRAN In a bid to combat drug

smuggling, Iranian authorities are investing millions of pounds to build a

wall along the nation’s borders with Afghanistan and Pakistan. Heroin and

opium destined for Western markets are regularly transported through Iran

from these countries. The move has been praised by the UN Offi ce on

Drugs and Crime, which said that Iran was seizing between 20 and 40 per

cent of traffi cked drugs, compared with between fi ve and ten per cent

in the USA and Europe.

ZAMBIA Zambian authorities have shut down a Chinese-run manganese

mine indefi nitely due to high levels of air pollution. Chiman Manufacturing

has been running the mine in Kabwe, 150 kilometres north of the capital,

Lusaka, for two years, but was issued with a closure notice for failing to

Nepalese caves yield ancient Buddhist paintings

Paintings, scripts and artefacts, some of which may date as far back as the 13th century, have been found inside a newly discovered series of caves located 125 kilometres northwest of the Nepalese capital, Kathmandu. A team of climbers, scholars, archaeologists and explorers from the USA, Italy and Nepal made the discovery while examining 12 cave systems set inside a sheer cliff in the Himalaya at an altitude of 4,300 metres. The team had to use ropes and ice axes to gain access to the caves, each of which had around 20 openings.

The caves, near the medieval walled city of Lo Manthang in the Mustang district, contained

stupas (religious monuments), paintings depicting Buddha and Newari murals. “The fi ndings underscore the richness of the Tibetan Buddhist religious tradition of this area, stretching back nearly a millennium, as well as the artistic beauty and wide geographical reach of Newari artists,” said Broughton Coburn, a US member of the survey team and an expert in Himalayan conservation and development. “For Nepal, and for the Lobas, the people of northern Mustang, these are national treasures, and they need to be preserved and protected,” he said.

implement pollution control measures to protect the health of nearby residents. Fossilised forest found in US mine

TOP 10

HIGHEST POPULATION PER DOCTOR

1. CONGO-KINSHASA 71,958

2. MALAWI 46,241

3. TANZANIA 45,864

4. ETHIOPIA 37,397

5. MOZAMBIQUE 37,354

6. BURUNDI 35,500

7. LIBERIA 33,981

8. NIGER 32,891

9. SIERRA LEONE 30,952

10. CHAD 25,797

Source: The Economist Pocket World in Figures, 2006 (Profi le, £10.99)

A 300-million-year-old forest, containing well-preserved examples of plants that have long since become extinct, has been discovered in a coal mine in the US state of Illinois. Writing in the journal Geology, scientists from the University of Bristol and several US institutions said that the fossilised forest is the largest ever found, covering a 10,000-hectare area revealed after seams of coal were removed. “We walked for miles and miles along pitch-black passages with the fossil forest just above our heads,” explained Dr Howard Falcon-Lang from the University of Bristol. “We were able to make a map of the forest by the light of our miner’s lamps.”

The forest dates back to the Carboniferous period – when most of the world’s coal reserves were formed – and provides a unique snapshot into the ecology of the time, allowing scientists to track how species have evolved

and landscapes have changed. The scientists believe that the forest’s state of preservation is the result of the whole region dropping below sea level and becoming buried in mud after a major earthquake.

10 www.geographical.co.uk JULY 2007

Sky Door Productions/Luigi Fieni; Sky Door Productions/Renan Ozturk; Dr Howard Falcon-Lang