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.

Nairobi/Addis Ababa  - Madagascar's squabbling leaders on Saturday signed an agreement to form a power-sharing government after months of wrangling.

Current President Andry Rajoelina and former president Marc Ravalomanana were among four leaders meeting in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, for crisis talks.

The deal would see Rajeolina remain president but bring in two "co-presidents" from other political groups.

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.

Varun Industries has informed that Varun Petroleum SARL, Madagascar, a subsidiary of the company has signed a new production sharing contract (PSC) with OMNIS of Madagascar, for an off-shore gas block covering area of approximately 13,200 square kilometers on the basin of Indian Ocean.

Under the agreement, Varun Petroleum SARL will have the right to explore, exploit and off-shore mining in the East coast point of Sainte Marie Region.

Maputo  - Madagascar's embattled interim President Andry Rajoelina on Friday ignored calls by his rivals for him to step aside and let someone else lead the country out of an eight-month-old political crisis.

Speaking on national television, Rajoelina insisted he would remain president of the interim authority he formed after ousting ex- president Marc Ravalomanana from power in March.

Rajoelina also said he had instructed his prime minister to overhaul his cabinet within 72 hours and get rid of underperforming ministers, apparently leaving his prime minister to continue in his role.

Maputo - With hours to go before the expiry of a deadline, Madagascar's political rivals had yet to agree on the divvying up of posts in a proposed new transitional government aimed at ending eight months of unrest on the Indian Ocean island.

A source at the international team mediating the dispute, led by former Mozambique president Joaquim Chissano, said interim president Andry Rajoelina and his rivals had yet to submit their proposals for the allocation of posts in the 15-month transitional government.

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 - One person was killed and eight were injured in a fire that tore through the Madagascan coastal beach front Foulpointe (Mahavelona), local media reported Tuesday.

At least 2,800 residents of the area were left homeless, after a fire that started Monday destroyed 556 houses and cottages, including a hotel with 25 bungalows.

According to initial reports, no foreigners were injured in the fire, which occurred near the port city of Tamatave.

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.

New York - UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon welcomed on Monday the signing of agreements providing the framework to settle the political dispute among parties in Madagascar.

Ban called for the quick implementation of the agreements signed in Maputo, Mozambique on Sunday, which commit the four signers to a peaceful resolution of the conflict under a government of national unity in Magadascar.

The four Magadascan politicians who signed the agreements are Andry Rajoelina, Marc Ravalomanana, Didier Ratsiraka and Albert Zafy.

Maputo - Madagascar's rival leaders have agreed to form a unity government in a deal that includes amnesty for ousted president Marc Ravalomanana, who will not partake in the transition, officials said Sunday.

The agreement came after four days of internationally mediated talks on the political crisis in the Indian Ocean island, held in the Mozambican capital Maputo.

Maputo - Hopes were high for a breakthrough in negotiations to end months of political unrest in Madagascar as the island's interim leader Andry Rajoelina and three former presidents met for a second day of landmark talks in Mozambique on Thursday.

Rajoelina and his rival Marc Ravalomanana met face-to-face in Maputo Wednesday for the first time since Rajoelina forced Ravalomanana from office in March after weeks of military-backed demonstrations.

Maputo - Madagascar's present and past leaders were expected to begin negotiating in earnest Thursday at landmark talks in Mozambique about how to end political unrest on the Indian Ocean island.

Madagascar's interim president Andry Rajoelina and his rival Marc Ravalomanana held their first face-to-face talks in Maputo Wednesday since the military-backed Rajoelina forced Ravalomanana from office in March - after weeks of demonstrations.

Maputo - Madagascar's interim leader Andry Rajoelina and three former presidents began crucial talks Wednesday in Mozambique's capital Maputo on how to end their country's months-long political crisis.

The talks, chaired by former Mozambican president Joaquim Chissano on behalf of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), the regional political bloc, represent a breakthrough in months of stop- start negotiations.

Maputo - Madagascar's interim president Andry Rajoelina and three former presidents were scheduled to hold their first face-to-face talks Wednesday in Mozambique's capital Maputo on how to end their country's months-long political crisis.

The talks, chaired by former Mozambican president Joaquim Chissano on behalf of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), the regional political bloc, are being billed as a breakthrough for African mediators.

Johannesburg  - Madagascar's interim president Andry Rajoelina and three former presidents have agreed to hold face-to-face talks on Wednesday in a bid to end the country's months-long political crisis.

Rajoelina, his arch-rival Marc Ravalomanana, whom he ousted from power in March, ex-dictator Didier Ratsiraka and ex-president Albert Zafy have agreed to meet on Wednesday in Mozambique's capital Maputo for talks, Mariette Imbinina, charge d'affaires at Madagascar's embassy in South Africa confirmed Tuesday.

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.