Nearly 4,900 types of tropical and sub-tropical plants, including 150 rare ones, found in Hainan province of China are under immediate threat. Long regarded as China's largest botanical garden, the

In east Africa the latest war casualties are gorillas

The South Pacific island of Fiji is suffering from a massive drought. The sugarcane crop of 1998 is well below normal production. Even the torrential rains due to La Nina, which lashed Australia,