February 11, 2012 3:04 AM

YANGON (AFP) - Myanmar officials have freed a leading dissident Buddhist monk after a brief detention, his monastery said Saturday, following a call from the United States for his immediate release.

ADDIS ABABA (AFP) - Sudan and South Sudan signed a "treaty of non-aggression" on their disputed border Friday in Addis Ababa, where African Union-led negotiations between the two sides are being held.

ATHENS (AFP) - Greece's coalition government early Saturday approved a eurozone debt deal and accompanying austerity measures that were tabled in parliament for a vote the next day, the semi-state ANA agency said.

CHICAGO (AFP) - German carmaker BMW has agreed to pay $3 million in civil penalties for failing to report safety defects soon enough, US safety regulators said Friday.

CAIRO (AFP) - The ruling military in Egypt said on Friday's eve of the first anniversary of the revolt that toppled Hosni Mubarak that it will not bow to threats or plots against the state, official television said.

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September 10, 2009

AFP partners TARA Oceans expedition

Agence France-Presse has decided to support Tara Oceans in an unprecedented media partnership after an approach by the international scientific expedition.

"The issue here is universal and the adventure singular," said AFP chairman Pierre Louette. "The Tara expeditions are oriented towards scientific research linked to the impact of climate warming to the future of humanity."

"It involves informing as many people as possible to see what ails our oceans and what, nevertheless, still leaves them so rich, and to promote awareness of our natural environment," said Louette. "In contributing to science and consciousness by distributing this news across the whole world, AFP is faithful to its own mission."

The ocean explorer TARA set sail on September 5 from Lorient in western France for a three-year, 150,000 kilometre (81,000 nautical mile) voyage that will take it to all the world's oceans to study the impact of global warming on marine ecosystems.

The Tara's previous expedition was an 18-month foray into the Arctic to chart the shrinking ice sheets between Siberia and Greenland, before returning in 2008. During the expedition, the steel schooner drifted in the ice fields for 507 days.

The expedition was carried out as part of the International Polar Year under the auspices of the DAMOCLES European scientific programme. “Due to its statutes, it’s exceptional that AFP associates itself with one particular initiative over another: our sole concern is facts, which leads us to cover what we decide, rarely to get involved,” said Louette.

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