Madagascar

The authorities in Madagascar remained tight-lipped on Wednesday over whether the government would seek to extradite Didier Ratsiraka from France after a court had sentenced the former president to five years in prison for his role in last year's political crisis. Ratsiraka, who fled the country at the height of the political upheaval, did not appear in court at Monday's hearing.

At the official launch of a national campaign to end child sexual exploitation in Madagascar, UNICEF and International Labour Organisation (ILO) presented the resumes of three studies that highlighted the sexual exploitation of children in Madagascar. According to the UNICEF-sponsored study, between 30 per cent to 50 per cent of all sex workers in two of country's main cities, Nosy Be and Tamatave, were children under the age of 18.

Madagascar said Tuesday it planned to more than triple the size of its nature reserves to help protect some of the planet's weirdest and rarest creatures. Long isolated from the rest of the world, the African island's wildlife has evolved in unique and startling ways, making it an ecological treasure trove.

A forgotten famine is reducing one of the world's richest stores of biodiversity, the rainforests of Madagascar, to ash. Farmers stricken by drought on the Indian Ocean island are burning swaths of primeval woodland to make charcoal.

On the southern side of Madagascar lies a wilderness paradise. The Indian Ocean washes over white sands. There is a primeval rainforest which is home to thousands of plant and animal species found nowhere else. It is here that the world's largest mining company, Rio Tinto, intends to dredge hundreds of millions of tonnes of soil over 6 000 hectares to extract ilmenite, a mineral used to make paint and toothpaste.

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