In brief: Election maneuver widely condemned

Yangon, Myanmar – A decision by Myanmar’s military junta to bar pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi from upcoming elections drew sharp criticism from around the world, with one of the country’s Southeast Asian allies today calling it “a complete farce.”

A new election law announced Wednesday prohibits anyone convicted of a crime – as Suu Kyi was in August – from being a member of a political party. That makes the detained democracy leader ineligible to become a candidate in elections scheduled for some time later this year.

In what amounts to the same thing, another election law published in state-owned newspapers today says anyone convicted by a court of law cannot run for election to the two houses of Parliament.

“Unless they release Aung San Suu Kyi and allow her and her party to participate in elections, it’s a complete farce and therefore contrary to their road map to democracy,” Philippine Foreign Secretary Alberto Romulo told the Associated Press.

The Philippines is a partner with Myanmar in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, whose 10 members rarely voice criticism of each other.

Master seed bank boosts its diversity

Oslo, Norway – Two years after receiving its first deposits, a “doomsday” seed vault on an Arctic island has amassed half a million seed samples, making it the world’s most diverse repository of crop seeds, the vault’s operators announced today.

Cary Fowler – who heads the trust that oversees the seed collection, which is 620 miles from the North Pole, said the facility now houses at least one-third of the world’s crop seeds.

Located in Norway’s remote Svalbard archipelago, the Svalbard Global Seed Vault is a safeguard against wars or natural disasters wiping out food crops around the globe. It was opened in 2008 as a master backup to the world’s other 1,400 seed banks, in case their deposits are lost.

War wiped out seed banks in Iraq and Afghanistan, and another bank in the Philippines was flooded in the wake of a typhoon in 2006. The Svalbard bank is designed to withstand global warming, earthquakes and even nuclear strikes.