EARTH

African farmland investment has the potential to match the exponential growth of Brazil's agricultural industry, the head of business development at privately owned agricultural operator Quifel said.

Spain's new immigration bill will adjust the inflow of migrant workers to the demands of the job market in the new economic cycle, Secretary of State for Immigration Anna Terron said. The demise of an economic model based on a decade-long construction and property boom which attracted a wave of South American

Five people were killed in anti-government protests over the weekend in Morocco, according to the county’s interior ministry.

A new NASA satellite -- Glory -- will collect data on the properties and distribution of aerosols in Earth's atmosphere and on solar irradiance for the long-term record of Earth's climate. The launch of NASA's Glory spacecraft aboard an Orbital Sciences Taurus XL rocket is scheduled for February 23.

South Korean automaker Hyundai Motors is seeking to secure rare earth mineral supply, as the industry faces a possible shortage of minerals.

Zambia's economy is expected to grow 6.5 percent this year and 6.6 percent next year on the back of a rally in copper prices and improvements in agriculture, a Reuters poll of 12 economists showed on Thursday.

China announced a shake-up of its rare earths industry on Wednesday, vowing reasonable quotas on mining and exports to bring order to the small but strategic sector where its dominance has spooked foreign buyers.

China will soon publish new regulations to increase supervision of the country's rare earth industry in a move that is likely to drastically change the landscape of the sector, the China Securities Journal informed on Wednesday.

France and Italy have fallen badly behind on pledges to boost their development aid and should follow the example of Britain, which has stuck to pledges despite austerity measures, Bob Geldof said on Tuesday.

China is the top economy in the world, the majority of Americans believe, according to the latest Gallup Poll.

This year Valentine's Day is so special as NASA's Stardust spacecraft is preparing for final date with comet Tempel 1 on its second exploration. The world will be beginning to look at images when the spacecraft is on its closest approach to fly by comet Tempel 1 at about 11:37 pm EST on Monday, with confirmation likely to be received on Earth at about 11:56 pm EST.

China has created a state planning zone covering the country's biggest rare earth mines in a move to cut production of the vital rare mineral elements used for numerous high-tech goods, the official Xinhua news agency reported on Thursday night.

Snow across some drought-hit parts of north and central China brought limited respite from a drought threatening winter wheat crops that has fueled talk of higher global prices, state forecasters said Thursday.

A new combined image of a ring -- not of jewels -- but of black holes comes from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and Hubble Space Telescope just in time for Valentine's Day.

A minister in the government of South Sudan was shot dead inside his ministry on Wednesday, days after referendum results confirmed the region will become Africa's newest independent state, officials said.

Resource-rich African governments risk unrest if they hold back the benefits of soaring global commodity prices from their own people, delegates to a major mining conference were told on Wednesday.

Earth will have another brush with the celestial throw of dice today, with an asteroid the size of a car passing close by the planet, but astronomers have ruled out jitters.

Governments in the Asia-Pacific region face the risk of unprecedented numbers of people displaced by floods, storms and other impacts of climate change, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) said in a report on Monday.

Seeking to flee extraordinarily high rates of unemployment in their country, thousands of young Spaniards are seeking to find jobs in Germany.

A report by an American think thank says that U.S. dependence on China for rare earths is extremely problematic and poses both economic and national security risks.

Hungary's government will work to boost employment levels from 55 percent quickly, including with unorthodox measures, Prime Minister Viktor Orban said on Wednesday. Orban told a news conference the changes are needed