Antananarivo, Madagascar  - British and American conservationists have taken a big step toward saving the world's rarest duck species, the Madagascar pochard (Aythya innotata), by hatching eight ducklings in captivity, reports said.

Antananarivo  - A group of international environmental organizations and universities have called for a boycott of precious wood from Madagascar, saying criminal gangs have been using months of political turmoil to plunder protected forests.

The campaign is underwritten by, among others, the Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF), Conservation International, the European Association of Zoos and Aquaria and several universities that have been working on conservation in Madagascar.

"Consumers of rosewood and ebony products are asked to check their origin, and boycott those made of Malagasy wood," they said in a statement issued this week.

Antananarivo - A clean-up operation was underway in southern Madagascar following a fuel spill from a wrecked Turkish-registered freighter, which has contaminated several kilometres of protected coastline, local media reported Friday.

State television on Thursday evening showed the first images of the affected stretch of coast around Cap Sainte Marie, Madagascar's southernmost point, which is renowned for its rich coral reefs and passing humpback whales.

Antananarivo - Rescue workers in Madagascar were battling to save a number of humpback whales that have beached on the southern tip of the island, where a fuel spill from a Turkish freighter has caused extensive pollution, local media reported Thursday.

Antananarivo  - An ecological disaster looms off the southern tip of the Indian Ocean island of Madagascar as a shipwrecked Turkish freighter leaked fuel, waste water and phosphates into the sea, local media reported Tuesday.

The 189-metre-long, 30-metre-wide MS Gulser Ana, which was bound for India with a cargo of 39,000 tonnes of phosphates, sank three kilometres off the coast at Faux Cap on August 26.

The cause of the incident was unclear. Rescue workers, who took the 23-person crew - 21 Turks and two Indonesians - to safety reported seeing black smoke coming from the ship. The ship's owners have yet to make a statement.

Antananarivo  - The crew of a freighter sailing under the Turkish flag was evacuated in heavy storms off the southern tip of Madagascar, local media reported Thursday.

The reconnaissance ships San Jose and Giovanni Topic rushed to the aid of the freighter Gulser Ana after the Centre for Fishing Control on the small island of Reunion near Madagascar notified Malagasy authorities Wednesday about the precarious situation on the freighter.

Antananarivo - A super-sized rat, about the size of a six-month baby, has been discovered in southern Madagascar, local media reported Thursday.

The 7.5-kilogramme "rattus norvegicus" or brown rat was found in the Mandena nature reserve in the tropical south of the vast Indian Ocean island, L'Express newspaper said.

The biggest specimen of this species of rat found to date was 1.5 kilogrammes, according to the doctor responsible for pest control in Madagascar's health department, Sahondra Ramiakajato.

Antananarivo - Parents of schoolchildren in the Indian Ocean island of Madagascar have reacted angrily to their children being asked in an exam to regurgitate the pariah government's development programme, saying the test smacks of propaganda.

Around 200,000 Madagascan pupils aged between 13 and 15 are undergoing their junior high school exams.

Antananarivo  - Madagascar's two-month-old conjoined twin girls are destined to be joined for life after surgeons decided it was too risky to separate them, local media reported Friday.

Kambana und Sova were born in the remote village of Sahavavy in the east of the impoverished Indian Ocean island on May 10. They are joined in the area of the genitalia and anus.

Their combined weight at birth was 3.6 kilogrammes.

Antananarivo  - A railway accident on the Indian Ocean island of Madagascar killed six people and left around 30 others injured, some seriously, local media reported Thursday.

The accident took place Wednesday evening as the train was returning to the city of Fiarantsoa, in the southern highlands, from the eastern harbour city of Manakara, 163 kilometres away.

Antananarivo - A first shipment of ilmenite from mining giant Rio Tinto's vast mineral sands project in the south of crisis-hit Madagascar was en route to Canada this week, local media reported.

Two daily newspapers reported Wednesday that Qit Madagascar Minerals (QMM), a subsidiary of Rio Tinto, managed to send a first shipment of 35,000 tons of the mineral to Canada last week through a new custom-built port at Ehoala, south of Fort Dauphin.

Antananarivo- Madagascar's interim leader Andry Rajoelina told the nation Tuesday evening he would not run for president of the troubled Indian Ocean island in 2010 elections if the country's three ex-presidents also pulled out.

Earlier this week, local media reported the Rajoelina, who toppled the island's democratically-elected president Marc Ravalomanana in March after weeks of street protests, had bowed out of the race.

Antananarivo : Madagascar's Prime Minister Monja Roindefa said Niels Marquadt, the critical US ambassador to the crisis- stricken island nation, should leave if he does not stop interfering in the country's internal affairs.

The prime minister criticised the US diplomat in several speeches made during an official visit to the south-west of the country.

If Marquardt continues to interfere, it would be better for him to leave the island, Moindefa said.

Antananarivo - Fresh clashes have broken out in the strife- torn Indian Ocean island of Madagascar, following last month's seizure of power by former Antananarivo mayor Andry Rajoelina, media reports said Monday. After a military crackdown on protestors last week left seven demonstrators dead, a military personnel carrier was blown up on Sunday by Molotov cocktails.

This triggered explosions at the ammunitions store at the barracks outside the capital Antananarivo, which injured one soldier.

In the ensuing panic soldiers fired at random.

Antananarivo  - Madagascar government soldiers fired on a demonstration by supporters of ousted ex-president Marc Ravalomanana in the capital Antananarivo Monday, reportedly killing and wounding several.

Antananarivo's private TV Plus broadcaster reported three dead, including a policeman, who was not wearing uniform, and several wounded, including two children.

The violence occutred when thousands of Ravalomanana supporters sought to march to the justice palace.

Antananarivo  - Protests continued on the tropical island of Madagascar on Saturday, with the military using tear gas in the capital Antananarivo against a demonstration by nearly 30,000 supporters of ousted former president Marc Ravalomanana.

The protesters had earlier called for a general strike for Monday and a tax boycott to protest the new interim government led by Andry Rajoelina, who was brought to power after seven weeks of violence.

Antananarivo - Around 5,000 opponents of Madagascar's new leader Andry Rajoelina on Monday demonstrated in the capital Antananarivo over his installation as interim president following a power grab that has been condemned worldwide.

Around 5,000 people attended the rally in Antananarivo's May 13 square, the square where Rajoelina's supporters staged seven weeks of near-daily protests that eventually toppled ex-president Marc Ravalomanana last week.

Antananarivo  - Madagascar's new leader Andry Rajoelina was inaugurated as president Saturday at a stadium ceremony attended by some 50,000 cheering supporters in the capital, Antananarivo.

The ceremony, following seven weeks of violence which saw the ousting of elected president Marc Ravalomanana, came a day after the African Union suspended the country over Rajoelina's "coup".

Antananarivo - On his first working day as Madagascar's interim president Thursday Andry Rajoelina dissolved the national assembly and senate in advance of new elections he says will be held within only two years.

Rajoelina, who ousted ex-president Marc Ravalomanana from power on Tuesday after a seven-week campaign of street protests, also appointed more ministers to his interim government, including one - the education minister - from Ravalomanana's administration.

Antananarivo - Madagascar's new interim President Andry Rajoelina is a former DJ with under two years experience in politics, none at national level, and who at 35 is five years too young to lead the country, according to the constitution.

Rajoelina's victorious bid to oust the democratically-elected Marc Ravalomanana as president through two months of street protests has startled the international community, both by its daring and disregard for the ballot box.