CAIRO, Sept 22, 2008 (AFP) - The remote plateau where a party of 19 foreign tourists and Egyptians was reported kidnapped on Monday only became known to the Western world in the 1920s but has become a growing draw for Western visitors to Egypt.

NEURAS, July 20, 2008 (AFP) - It's not a mirage on the edge of one of the world's oldest deserts, though it may seem so at first: a lush vineyard producing wine that is worth the hot and dusty trip.

Somehow, Allan Walkden-Davis has created this oasis in the Namib desert region in the southwestern corner of Africa, one of the driest places on Earth.

WASHINGTON, May 9, 2008 (AFP) - The Sahara became the world's biggest hot desert some 2,700 years ago after a very slow fade from green, according to a new study which clashes with the theory that desertification came abruptly.

MADRID, Sept 15, 2007 (AFP) - A UN conference on combatting desertification ended Saturday in Madrid without agreement on a budget for a ten-year action plan, with ecologists berating Washington and Tokyo for failing to come up with sufficient funding.

The Ecologists in Action pressure group, attending as an observer, dubbed the conference a failure, despite the plan being approved, because no money was pledged to implement it.

The group pinned the blame on Japan and the United States for the setback.

MADRID, Sept 15, 2007 (AFP) - A UN conference on desertification has failed to agree on a budget for a ten-year action plan despite being extended in a bid to find a solution, one of the participants said Saturday.

Organisers were not available to confirm the report by the Ecologists in Action group, which said the whole conference had been a failure, even if the ten-year plan had been approved, because there would be no money to implement it.

MADRID, Sept 14, 2007 (AFP) - A UN conference on desertification threatened to end without a concrete outcome Friday as participants agreed on the need for joint action but struggled to decide on funding, a spokeswoman said.

'It's still very undecided. It's not clear at this stage. It's all a question of money,' the spokeswoman told AFP at the Madrid conference.

'It seems to be in terms of implementation of the ten-year plan,' she said, adding that talks were likely to go on into the night and could spill over into the weekend.

MADRID, Sept 14, 2007 (AFP) - Despite agreeing that climate change and desert spread must be tackled together, a UN conference on desertification threatened to end without a concrete outcome on Friday as participants struggled to agree on funding, a spokeswoman said.

'It's still very undecided. It's not clear at this stage. It's all a question of money,' the spokeswoman told AFP at the Madrid conference.

MADRID, Sept 13, 2007 (AFP) - Climate change and desertification are two sides of the same coin and must be tackled together, according to participants at the Madrid conference on desertification.

'These two issues are very intimately related in the way you can describe them as two halfs of a coin,' according to Yvo de Boer, executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

MADRID, Sept 3, 2007 (AFP) - The global spread of deserts poses a severe challenge to humanity that transcends any international borders, a UN-sponsored conference in Madrid heard Monday.

'It's clear now that desertification is amongst the greatest challenges that humankind faces,' Crown Prince Felipe, heir to the Spanish throne, said in an opening address to the forum, which included more than 2,000 delegates.

MADRID, Sept 3, 2007 (AFP) - More than 2,000 delegates from around the world gathered in Spain on Monday for the start of a UN-sponsored conference that will discuss ways to stop deserts from spreading.

Crown Prince Felipe, heir to the Spanish throne, and his wife, Princess Letizia, are scheduled to officially open the 12-day gathering in Madrid of senior politicians and experts from nearly 200 countries at 12 p.m. (1000 GMT).

The aim of the conference is to analyze the situation around the world and identify funding priorities.

MADRID, Sept 1, 2007 (AFP) - Over 2,000 delegates from around the world gather in Spain from Monday for a UN-sponsored conference that will discuss ways to stop increasing areas of the world from turning into desert.

Senior politicians and experts from nearly 200 countries as well as representatives from 800 non-governmental organizations will attend the event in Madrid which wraps up on September 14.