A "doomsday" vault storing food crop seeds from around the world in man-made caves on a remote Norwegian Arctic island will receive more than 14,000 new samples on Tuesday, a custodian of the facility said.
The Svalbard Global Seed Vault, set deep inside a mountain to withstand disasters from nuclear war to global warming, was launched in 2008 as a backup for the world's gene banks that store the genetic code for thousands of plant species.
Protected by permafrost, the vault has received samples from across the world, and played a leading role between 2015 and 2019 in rebuilding seed collections damaged during the war in Syria.
"The seeds deposited this week represent not just biodiversity, but also the knowledge, culture and resilience of the communities that steward them," Executive Director Stefan Schmitz of the Crop Trust said in a statement.
The new contributions include a sample of 15 species from Sudan, consisting of several varieties of sorghum - a plant that is significant both for the country's food security and its cultural heritage, the Crop Trust said.
The war between the Rapid Support Forces and the army which broke out in April 2023 has killed tens of thousands of people and displaced 12 million, while plunging half of Sudan into hunger and several locations into famine.Arctic
"In Sudan...these seeds represent hope," the director of Sudan's Agricultural Plant Genetic Resources Conservation and Research Centre said in a statement.
The total of 14,022 new samples will be deposited at 1430 GMT, including seeds of Nordic tree species from Sweden and rice from Thailand, the Crop Trust said.
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The 2025 Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to María Corina Machado, a prominent Venezuelan opposition leader, for her tireless efforts in advocating for democracy and a peaceful transition in Venezuela.
Democracies must be prepared to fight for freedom in order to survive, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Maria Corina Machado said on Wednesday, in a speech delivered by her daughter during a ceremony Machado could not attend.
Scores of demonstrators gathered outside the Norwegian Nobel Institute in Oslo Tuesday (9 December) to protest against the awarding of this year’s Nobel Peace Prize to Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado.
French naval forces opened fire on a swarm of unidentified drones that flew over one of the country’s most sensitive military installations, the Île Longue submarine base in western Brittany, officials confirmed on Friday.
Real Madrid have parted ways with coach Xabi Alonso, appointing former defender Álvaro Arbeloa as his replacement.
Timothée Chalamet won the Golden Globe for best male actor in a musical or comedy on Sunday for his role in Marty Supreme, beating strong competition in one of the night’s most closely watched categories.
Hawaii’s Kīlauea volcano is showing increased activity, with lava flowing from two summit craters and flames, smoke and ash rising from the caldera.
Israel has sharply escalated its warnings to Lebanon amid rising regional tensions linked to Iran, according to a report by the Lebanese newspaper Nida Al Watan.
Iranian authorities have taken steps to disrupt access to Starlink satellite internet, according to users and digital-rights groups, in what appears to be the latest effort to tighten control over people’s access to the internet inside the country.
The 240-megawatt Khizi-Absheron Wind Power Plant has been inaugurated in Azerbaijan on Thursday (8 Jan) by President Ilham Aliyev, who described the launch as a landmark moment for Azerbaijan's energy sector. It's the first large-scale, independently developed wind energy project in the country.
A mountain gorilla has given birth to twins in war‑torn eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), a national park said on Wednesday, calling the event “a major event” for the endangered subspecies.
Experts say COP30 failed to deliver concrete commitments on fossil fuels and deforestation despite high expectations.
Snow and ice caused travel chaos in northwest Europe on Wednesday, while others were delighted by the snow-covered streets of Paris, venturing out on sledges and skis.
Emergency services across southeastern Australia have been placed on high alert as a blistering air mass pushes temperatures to dangerous extremes, reviving painful memories of the nation's catastrophic fire seasons of the past decade.
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