- Hawaii's Kilauea volcano erupts, spewing columns of lava
- El Salvador Congress votes to end ban on metal mining
- Five things to know about Panama Canal, in Trump's sights
- NBA fines Minnesota guard Edwards $75,000 for outburst
- Haitians massacred for practicing voodoo were abducted, hacked to death: UN
- Inter beat Como to keep in touch with leaders Atalanta
- Man Utd boss Amorim questions 'choices' of Rashford's entourage
- Trump's TikTok love raises stakes in battle over app's fate
- Is he serious? Trump stirs unease with Panama, Greenland ploys
- England captain Stokes to miss three months with torn hamstring
- Support grows for Blake Lively over smear campaign claim
- Canada records 50,000 opioid overdose deaths since 2016
- Jordanian, Qatari envoys hold talks with Syria's new leader
- France's second woman premier makes surprise frontline return
- France's Macron announces fourth government of the year
- Netanyahu tells Israel parliament 'some progress' on Gaza hostage deal
- Guatemalan authorities recover minors taken by sect members
- Germany's far-right AfD holds march after Christmas market attack
- Serie A basement club Monza fire coach Nesta
- Mozambique top court confirms ruling party disputed win
- Syrian medics say were coerced into false chemical attack testimony
- NASA solar probe to make its closest ever pass of Sun
- London toy 'shop' window where nothing is for sale
- Volkswagen boss hails cost-cutting deal but shares fall
- Accused killer of US insurance CEO pleads not guilty to 'terrorist' murder
- Global stock markets mostly higher
- Not for sale. Greenland shrugs off Trump's new push
- Acid complicates search after deadly Brazil bridge collapse
- Norwegian Haugan dazzles in men's World Cup slalom win
- Arsenal's Saka out for 'many weeks' with hamstring injury
- Mali singer Traore child custody case postponed
- France mourns Mayotte victims amid uncertainy over government
- UK economy stagnant in third quarter in fresh setback
- African players in Europe: Salah leads Golden Boot race after brace
- German far-right AfD to march in city hit by Christmas market attack
- Ireland centre Henshaw signs IRFU contract extension
- Bangladesh launches $5bn graft probe into Hasina's family
- US probes China chip industry on 'anticompetitive' concerns
- Biden commutes sentences for 37 of 40 federal death row inmates
- Clock ticks down on France government nomination
- Mozambique on edge as judges rule on disputed election
- Mobile cinema brings Tunisians big screen experience
- Honda and Nissan to launch merger talks
- Police arrest suspect who set woman on fire in New York subway
- China vows 'cooperation' over ship linked to severed Baltic Sea cables
- Australian tennis star Purcell provisionally suspended for doping
- Luxury Western goods line Russian stores, three years into sanctions
- Wallace and Gromit return with comic warning about AI dystopia
- Philippine military says will acquire US Typhon missile system
- Afghan bread, the humble centrepiece of every meal
Hope for Mekong dolphins as Cambodia numbers increase: minister
The number of Mekong dolphins has risen to more than 100 in Cambodia, the agriculture minister said Monday, raising a glimmer of hope for the endangered mammals.
Irrawaddy dolphins -- small, shy creatures with domed foreheads and short beaks -- once swam through much of the mighty Mekong, all the way to the delta in Vietnam.
But their population in the river has dwindled from 200, when the first census was taken in 1997, to just 89 in 2020, largely due to illegal fishing, habitat loss and plastic waste.
"Currently, we have some 105 dolphins," Agriculture Minister Dith Tina said during a ceremony to mark National Fisheries Day.
In the first six months of this year, eight new dolphin calves were recorded, but there were also two deaths, the agricultural ministry said.
The boost to numbers follows the birth of eight dolphins last year, a ministry statement said, while 2023 also saw five deaths recorded.
"The ministry has strongly taken measures against fishing offences and the making and distributing of destructive fishing tools that seriously damage marine resources," Dith Tina said.
Last year Cambodia's then leader Hun Sen U-turned on a law to protect the species, saying "dolphins keep dying" while the fishing industry suffered from the conservation legislation.
Irrawaddy dolphins feature on the "Red List" of endangered wildlife by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
Adding to concerns about their survival, around 70 percent of the population is now too old to breed.
The dolphins' habitat has also been reduced by upstream dams in Laos and China and climate change, which have had a major impact on water levels in the river.
M.Carneiro--PC