Miraculous survival in Switzerland

Swiss police say a baby suffered little more than a bump after a buggy was blown onto railway tracks and run over by a train. (CBC)

Bangladesh Street Kids Turn From Begging to Banking

Raju's life changed after he discovered an unlikely profession for a street child: banking. The 16-year-old boy started working for the Children's Development Bank, a Bangladesh-based lender that is owned by a non-government organization and managed by street children. He now earns $30 a month and can save a portion of his income. (Reuters-India)

Boeing Flies First Hydrogen-Powered Plane

US aircraft giant Boeing claimed a world first Thursday flying a manned airplane powered by a hydrogen-cell battery, the first time in the history of aviation and a breakthrough that could herald a greener future for the industry. (GNN)

Cheaper, More Reliable Solar?

A recent renewed interest in alternative energy technologies has also revitalized interest in solar thermal technology, a type of solar power that uses the sun’s heat rather than its light to produce electricity.

Although the technology for solar thermal has existed for more than two decades, projects have languished while fossil fuels remained cheap. But solar thermal’s time may now have come — and mirrored arrays of solar thermal power plants may soon bloom in many of the world’s deserts. (Geotimes)

Ebola Virus Vaccine Proven to Work

A team of Canadian and American researchers have tested a vaccine for the ebola virus on primates, and it seems to be working. They hope that what they’ve learned from finding a vaccine for ebola can be applied to other viruses like HIV/AIDs. (Things Are Good)

Canadians go dark with world for Earth Hour

Canadians joined communities around the world on Saturday in turning off the lights for this year's Earth Hour, a global campaign to raise awareness of climate change. About 100,000 Canadians out of a total of 300,000 people worldwide registered online for the event — putting the country among top participants anywhere.

Organizers see the event as a way to encourage the world to conserve energy. While all lights in participating cities are unlikely to be cut, it is the symbolic darkening of monuments, businesses and individual homes they are most eagerly anticipating. (CBC)

Somalia Once Again Polio-Free, Declares UN

In what is being described as a major victory in the global fight against polio, the United Nations health agency announced yesterday that the disease has been eradicated in strife-torn Somalia thanks to the efforts of some 10,000 volunteers and health workers across the Horn of Africa nation. (GNN)

Biomass Gas Project Provides Clean Power for Indian Villages

A new biomass plant that converts wood or agricultural waste into a combustible gas mixture is offering remote communities access to electricity in an environment friendly, carbon neutral way, thanks to the United Nations Development Program. (GNN)

Australia to Train Aboriginal Doctors

Australia committed $17 million on Thursday to train Aboriginal nurses and doctors, as part of efforts to close a 17-year gap in the life expectancies of indigenous and other Australians.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's pledge to improve health services for indigenous Australians builds on the government's landmark apology last month for inflicting decades of suffering on Aborigines. (AP)

World's tallest man thankful for the kindness of strangers

Leonid Stadnik's phenomenal height has forced him to quit a job he loved and to stoop as he moves around his house.

But Stadnik, who Guinness World Records says is the world's tallest human, says his condition has also taught him that there are many kindhearted strangers.

"Thanks to good people I have shoes and clothes," said the 37-year-old former veterinarian, who still lives with his 66-year-old mother. (MSNBC)

New bird discovered in Indonesia

A small greenish bird that has been playing hide-and-seek with ornithologists on a remote Indonesian island since 1996 was declared a newly discovered species on Friday and promptly recommended for endangered lists. (Reuters)

See-Saw to Power African Schools With Electricity

A young inventor is hoping to tap the unbounded energy of children in a playground to power schools in Africa. Design student Daniel Sheridan has created a simple see-saw which generates enough electricity to light a classroom. (BBC)

Monkey Business

Forest officials in India have come up with an unusual way of controlling pesky monkeys - they've set up a park to protect them.

The primate protection park in India's northern Himachal Pradesh will house more than 2000 Simian monkeys and hopefully keep a check on the growing monkey menace in the hilly state. (Reuters)

Nigeria, Cameroon Settle Decades Old Border Dispute in Oil-Rich Atlantic

After decades of sometimes bloody disputes over the Bakassi Peninsula, Cameroon and Nigeria have settled their long-disputed maritime border, ending years of uncertainty as to who owns sections of Africa's oil-rich Gulf of Guinea.

"Today is a glorious and remarkable day, a milestone in the history of Cameroon-Nigeria relations,"said Nigerian delegation head Prince Bola Ajibola. (Reuters)

Peace is Delicious for Traditional Foes Who Now Grow Coffee Together

In Uganda, one man has brought together three groups of people - Christian, Muslim and Jewish - to put aside old differences, creating a coffee cooperative that now boasts some 700 members of all three faiths. They named their coffee Mirembe Kawomera, which means “Delicious Peace.” (Good News Network)

Dolphin rescues stranded whales

A dolphin who made a New Zealand bay her home helps a group of conservationists to save two stranded whales.

The female pygmy whale and its calf became stranded on Mahia beach and resisted human attempts to herd them out to sea. The situation changed when Moko the dolphin came on the scene.

Israelis and Arabs join forces to save wildlife

Concern over the fate of rare habitat could alter the course of the West Bank barrier

Fearing for the environment, an unusual mix of Jewish settlers and Israeli and Palestinian activists have joined forces to stop the barrier from pushing through this sensitive area east of Jerusalem, saying the pristine landscape and wildlife in Wadi Qelt could suffer irreversible damage. (MSNBC)

Kosovo's 'Woman of Courage' Bridges Ethnic Divide

Valdete Idrizi, a 34-year-old ethnic Albanian who survived the ethnic violence in Kosovo in the 1990s, has reached out to her Serb neighbors.

She founded a multi-ethnic organization to bring together Serbs, Albanians and the various Roma communities and try to heal the wounds of war. The group even facilitated the return of some displaced Serbs to their homes in Kosovo — which led to Idrizi receiving death threats from Kosovar Albanian militants.

However, it also led to her receiving an International Woman of Courage award from U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. (NPR)

For Former Combatants, A Plan for Peace

Bassam Aramin and Zohar Shapira, the co-founders of Combatants for Peace, talk about their mission to end the cycle of violence in Israel and Palestine by bringing together individuals who previously fought against each other.

Currently around 450 Palestinians and Israelis are members of the group. (NPR)

Chicago Starts to 'Clean House' in Failing Schools

Nine Chicago schools are getting a top-to-bottom housecleaning – including replacing principals and most teachers – in a bid to lift student achievement out of the nation's academic basement. The risk is paying off. Schools that once looked like "Beirut," they now look like schools again. Even for a city that already leads the nation in school-reform ideas, the proposal is unusually bold and sweeping and districts across the US are watching with interest. (CS Monitor)