Giant tortoises endemic to the Galapagos Islands are back from near extinction, according to a study published Tuesday in PLOS One.
The Espanola giant tortoises, a species that can live for over 100 years, had numbered in the thousands but dropped to 15 by 1960 due to human exploitation, the study said. Between 1963 and 1974, conservationists brought the 12 female and three male surviving giant tortoises into captivity. Over 1,500 of their offspring have since been released onto the island, and the species' survival no longer requires human intervention, scientists said.

The northern white rhino has become a step closer to extinction after one of its last breeding males died in Kenya, leaving only six of the species now left in the world.
Suni, a 34-year-old northern white rhino, was found dead on Friday by rangers at the Ol Pejeta Conservancy.

Monsanto today announced its pledge of VND1.5 billion ($71,430) scholarship for outstanding students studying agricultural biotechnology at the Vietnam National University of Agriculture.

Species across land, rivers and seas decimated as humans kill for food in unsustainable numbers and destroy habitats

Kênh đào Kra được cho là sẽ có tác động có lợi đối với Việt Nam. Vùng biển Kiên Giang vốn nằm rất gần đường hải lưu quốc tế có cơ hội được đánh thức. Tàu bè khi qua kênh đào Kra hướng thẳng tới Phú Quốc - hòn đảo lớn nhất trong vùng cực nam Biển Đông giáp Vịnh Thái Lan, có thể trở thành một trạm dừng chân quốc tế. Theo kế hoạch, chiều dài kênh là 100km. Sau khi hoàn thành, đây sẽ là kênh đào nhân tạo lớn nhất châu Á. Tuyến hành trình từ Ấn Độ Dương về Đông Á được rút ngắn hơn 1.000 km so với tuyến đường đi qua Eo Malacca.

The new manager at Harvard, Stephen Blyth, succeeds Jane L. Mendillo as chief executive of the Harvard Management Company, the university’s investment arm. Harvard, which on Tuesday reported a gain of 15.4 percent for the fiscal year, still has the largest endowment, at $36.4 billion. But it suffered significantly during the financial crisis and was forced to sell some assets, like private equity holdings, at distressed prices.

Harvard University on Monday will announce the largest gift in its history, $350 million to the School of Public Health, from a group controlled by a wealthy Hong Kong family, one member of which earned graduate degrees at the university.
The foundation is led by two brothers, Ronnie and Gerald Chan, whose businesses include the Hang Lung Group, a major developer of real estate in Hong Kong and elsewhere in China, and the Morningside Group, a private equity and venture capital firm. The School of Public Health will be renamed for their father, T. H. Chan, who founded Hang Lung.

Historically, wealthy Latin Americans have had little interest in philanthropic giving aimed at solving social problems.
According to the World Giving Index, Costa Rica is the highest-ranked Latin American country in terms of giving at 23 on the 2013 list. Mr. Beeck’s native Peru is ranked 74th, Mexico 76th and Argentina 78th. (France is 77th.) Brazil is tied for 90th, with Iraq, Mali and Mauritania.

More than a dozen prominent Washington research groups have received tens of millions of dollars from foreign governments in recent years while pushing United States government officials to adopt policies that often reflect the donors’ priorities, an investigation by The New York Times has found.
The money is increasingly transforming the once-staid think-tank world into a muscular arm of foreign governments’ lobbying in Washington. And it has set off troubling questions about intellectual freedom: Some scholars say they have been pressured to reach conclusions friendly to the government financing the research.

Through a law upheld by the Indian Supreme Court this past spring, and the tenacity of Mr. Disht’s employer, Seema Talreja, who organized the boy’s application, Pankaj is attending a private academy, the Mother’s International School, where he receives individual attention from motivated teachers.
Mrs. Talreja, who has employed Mr. Disht for five years, wanted to help with his family’s education. She took advantage of the recent legislation, which requires Indian private schools to admit 25 percent of their student body from ages 6 to 14 from families making less than 100,000 rupees, or $1,800, a year.