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Geopolitics
Mali

New Turmoil In Mali As Prime Minister Is Arrested, Forced To Resign

GeopoliticsSourcesWORLDCRUNCHLES ECHOSMaliCountries

REUTERS, BBC NEWS (UK), WALL STREET JOURNAL (USA)

Worldcrunch

BAMAKO - Mali"s Prime Minister Cheick Modibo Diarra announced his resignation on Tuesday, hours after being arrested by soldiers while trying to leave for France, reports Reuters.

Diarra addressed the nation on national television saying: "Our country is living through a period of crisis. Men and women who are worried about the future of our nation are hoping for peace."

He went on to declare that he was "resigning along with my entire government on this day, Tuesday, Dec. 11, 2012. I apologize before the entire population of Mali."


He was arrested in his house late Monday reportedly on the orders of Captain Amadou Sanogo, who had led a military coup earlier this year, reports BBC News. A military spokesman said the arrest Tuesday was not a coup, and a new prime minister would be named shortly.

Mali's prime minister was getting ready to leave the country for France, reports the Wall Street Journal. It's unclear if the trip was planned, or if Diarra had gotten wind of the pending arrest and was trying to flee.

Diarra had been appointed prime minister of an interim government in April after the military officially handed power back to civilians following the coup that shook the country a month earlier.

Over the last few weeks, tensions between the leader and the army has risen in Mali.

The 60-year-old astrophysicist has backed plans to send a West African intervention force into the northern half of Mali which was seized after the coup.

West African leaders have agreed to dispatch more than 3000 soldiers to Mali to revamp the army and then support operations to retake the north from the Islamist rebels.

France has led a push for an international military operation to tackle the Islamist groups, including al Qaeda's North African wing, AQIM.

Many within Mali's military are opposed to a foreign intervention, saying they need only financial and logistical support.

Earlier this week, the country was described as "one of the potentially most explosive corners of the world" by the United States.

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nature

Forest Networks? Revisiting The Science Of Trees And Funghi "Reaching Out"

A compelling story about how forest fungal networks communicate has garnered much public interest. Is any of it true?

Thomas Brail films the roots of a cut tree with his smartphone.

Arborist and conservationist Thomas Brail at a clearcutting near his hometown of Mazamet in the Tarn, France.

Alain Pitton / ZUMA
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Melanie Jones, Jason Hoeksema, & Justine Karst

Over the past few years, a fascinating narrative about forests and fungi has captured the public imagination. It holds that the roots of neighboring trees can be connected by fungal filaments, forming massive underground networks that can span entire forests — a so-called wood-wide web. Through this web, the story goes, trees share carbon, water, and other nutrients, and even send chemical warnings of dangers such as insect attacks. The narrative — recounted in books, podcasts, TV series, documentaries, and news articles — has prompted some experts to rethink not only forest management but the relationships between self-interest and altruism in human society.

But is any of it true?

The three of us have studied forest fungi for our whole careers, and even we were surprised by some of the more extraordinary claims surfacing in the media about the wood-wide web. Thinking we had missed something, we thoroughly reviewed 26 field studies, including several of our own, that looked at the role fungal networks play in resource transfer in forests. What we found shows how easily confirmation bias, unchecked claims, and credulous news reporting can, over time, distort research findings beyond recognition. It should serve as a cautionary tale for scientists and journalists alike.

First, let’s be clear: Fungi do grow inside and on tree roots, forming a symbiosis called a mycorrhiza, or fungus-root. Mycorrhizae are essential for the normal growth of trees. Among other things, the fungi can take up from the soil, and transfer to the tree, nutrients that roots could not otherwise access. In return, fungi receive from the roots sugars they need to grow.

As fungal filaments spread out through forest soil, they will often, at least temporarily, physically connect the roots of two neighboring trees. The resulting system of interconnected tree roots is called a common mycorrhizal network, or CMN.

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