MEXICO CITY - Antibiotics may be the key to saving the 'ajolote' from extinction. This amphibian has survived since the colonial era in the canals of Xochimilco, a district in the Mexican capital.

Students from the National College of Professional and Technical Education were able to reduce the ajolote death rate using antibiotics. Some indigenous peoples here utilize the species for food and to treat respiratory illnesses.

In a laboratory-constructed version of the Xochimilco canals, the students injected newborn ajolotes with ampicilin and other derivative, which immunized the creatures against the severe pollution of the water in which they live.

Without the treatment, toxins found in the canals kill of 70 percent of the offspring within their first few hours of life.

BUENOS AIRES - There are nearly 500 public plazas with children's playground equipment and sand lots in the Argentine capital, and they have become the target for change, as officials say they are focal points for pollution.

As much as 30 percent of the play equipment is in a "critical" state and represents a danger for children, according to the Buenos Aires environmental secretariat.

The traditional sandboxes in which toddlers build castles are highly contaminated with bacteria and germs in addition to fecal matter from neighborhood cats and dogs.

The city authorities hired 250 attendants to ensure that pet owners keep their animals away from the play sites in the public plazas until fences are built.

HAVANA - Scientific institutions in Cuba have revitalized a manatee conservation program that had been suspended due to lack of financing, and face the possibility that this marine mammal could soon become extinct.

The project is to begin with a census of the manatee in the northern portion of Pinar del Rio province, some 175 km from Havana, and will involve help from student researchers.

The manatee, which some historians believe is the source of the legend of mermaids, has been over-hunted, said the director of the Centers for Marine Research, Marielena Ibarra. The animal's meat and fat fetch high prices.

BOGOTA - Approximately 700 peasant farmers signed an accord with the Colombian government to manually destroy 1,580 hectares of coca fields as a way to avoid fumigation of the area with agro-chemicals that contaminate and destroy the environment.

The agreement bears the signatures of residents of Puerto Asis, in Putumayo, a southern department of the country that the United States considers the world's leading producer of coca leaves, the raw material for cocaine.

The destruction of these illicit crops by spraying herbicides is outlined in Plan Colombia, a government strategy with US backing that has sparked criticism from environmentalists.

The government responded to the criticism with this accord, but some observers state that it is not representative because it will affect only a tiny fraction of the 70,000 hectares of coca crops in Putumayo.


* Source: Inter Press Service